More Than Survival
by Hey01ig
Summary: Rick/OC After Jolene joins Ricks group will Rick be able to avoid temptation. He's a married man but he is starting to wish he wasn't. Doing something wrong feels so right and they can't fight it much longer. Romance, drama, death, murder and unexpected twists slowly breaks the group apart.
1. Running from Woodbury

**This story contains future descriptive adult situations, violence and foul mouth language. This is a Rick and O/C and Daryl/Carol/Michonne fan fiction. If you read the comics you might see some similarities and characters down the line as the story progresses (For Example, the cannibals). If you love torture and romance then this story is for you. ****Reviews are always welcome. Hope you all enjoy!  
**

**Note:**

**Rick and Daryl make their appearance in chapter 3 in case you are wondering when they will show up.**

* * *

**Running from Woodbury**

Jolene grabbed the keys from the dead police officer and tried un cuffing the handcuffs on her wrists. She was shaken up from what just happened that it took her a few tries to finally unlock the cuffs. She threw them to the ground and ran. She busted through the front door of the police station and ran for her life. She had no clue what was happening but something was obviously not right. Jolene ran to Jensen's house, her best friend, the only person who knew she was innocent. She heard police sirens nearing and in panic she jumped behind a bush for cover hoping they didn't see her and that they were not after her. She poked through the bush and the police car raced out of her vision.

She sighed in relief and she jumped back out making her way to his house.

She was running on the sidewalk and ran past a few houses with doors wide open and the sound of screaming from a distance. Jolene stopped in front of a light blue house to take a few breaths before she started running again.

"Please, please help me." An elderly woman walked out of the house and slowly tried making her way to Jolene. She was holding her stomach, her pink nightgown covered with blood and pale as if she was sick.

Jolene took a few steps back from the woman. "I'm sorry…" She whispered and continued running.

She finally reached the front of Jensen's home and realized something was wrong. The front door was wide open with blood splattered on the front porch. She slowly walked up the porch and with horror she threw up yesterday's lunch. Jensen's Golden Retriever laid dead in the middle of the living room, the body ripped open and intestines everywhere. After she finished vomiting she wiped her mouth with her shirt, ran in Jensen's car that was wide open, hotwired it and jammed out of the city.

**-Five Months Later-**

Philip, the leader of Woodbury found Jolene along the way. He saved her from the horrors of what civilians had become once shit hit the fan. A story Jolene tries to forget. Every city seemed to be infected with the walking dead except for the small community of Woodbury. They had it fenced up and Philip had several men on look out all day and night to make sure the dead didn't make their way in. It was safe enough to have the survivors walk around the streets without having to worry about anything but for everyone's safety they all had a curfew, once dusk was upon us everyone goes back in their homes until dawn.

His daughter Penny died two months after Jolene joined Woodbury. She was bitten by a bitter after a herd broke down the fence. Bitters, a name that Philip came up with instead of calling them the walking dead. Jolene was taken back a bit, she had gotten close to Penny. Philip left her in Jolene's care when he was out taking care of business.

Since then Philips behavior changed. He was a man set out to protect Penny, a man of reason and negotiation. A man who put the needs of others before himself and now Jolene had noticed that he had become more ruthless, power hungry and what he says goes, no matter what. It went far enough for him to declare a new name, a name everyone in Woodbury calls him now…The Governor.

Jolene didn't blame him for the change. Anyone who would lose their old life and family would change and the only reason she was holding everything in so well was because before all this started she had already lost her old life. She had nothing to lose anymore and no one to care for. Even though she didn't blame him for the man he was turning out to be she couldn't help but to be a little afraid of him. She found him to be pretty off as he gained power but she couldn't put her finger on it, he kept her in the dark.

"Jolene." Philip stumbled into her room. He looked at her and he couldn't hold in his emotions for her anymore. He wanted her.

"Philip, are you drunk?" She got up from her bed and walked up to him.

Philips actions did the talking as he wrapped his arms around her waist bringing her close to him. "I'm so lonely Jolene."

"I know." She felt compassion for him. "You're drunk, let me take you to bed." Jolene gently pushed him away from her and grabbed his hand to lead him to his room.

Philip resisted and pulled her back into his arms. "I love you." He whispered and went in for his first kiss with her.

"Philip…" She jerked her head back, escaping his lips.

"You understand me. You know my pain. I lost my wife, Penny…everything." He poured his heart out as he grabbed the back of her head to bring her closer for a kiss.

She could taste the bourbon in his warm breath.

"Philip." She pushed him away. "Let's not go there." She looked up to him. She didn't see him as anything more than just a friend, a man who saved her life and brought her to this safe community.

He pulled her back in forcefully now, wanting to have his way with her. He was drunk, lonely and horny, a bad combination for a power hungry man. Jolene whimpered in pain from his grip, trying to push him away. He over powered her and pushed her onto the bed. He unbuckled his holster that held his gun and hunting knife and dropped it to the floor.

"Philip please, stop." She pleaded.

"I saved your life, I work hard to keep you safe, it's the least you could do." He unbuttoned and zipped down the zipper of his pants.

She quickly got off the bed and backed away from him slowly. "Philip! Please, don't do this."

He paid no attention to her words as he walked over to her. She turned and picked up the lamp that rested on the night stand and bashed it over his head. Glass shattered over his head and he collapsed down to the floor.

She stood there in shock. She didn't know what to do. She walked over to his body and put her index and middle finger to the side of his neck checking for a pulse. He was still breathing just unconscious.

She walked over and pulled out the hunting knife and gun from his belt. Jolene did the only thing she could do, the only thing she knows, run. She grabbed her back pack and packed some clothes and ran down stairs. She took two water bottles and a few snacks for the road and left the house. She quickly walked over to the fence where Philips right hand man Martinez stood.

"Where you goin?" Martinez anaylized the situation at hand.

"Get out of my way." She walked passed him.

"Hey, you can't leave." He grabbed her shoulder and turned her to him.

"Watch me!" She shrugged away from him.

Martinez grabbed her shoulder again but Jolene quickly turned to him and aimed the gun to his face. He jolted back a step and she backed away from him.

"If you're gonna shoot me then shoot me." She walked away from him and jumped over the tires that surrounded the fence.

"He killed them!" Martinez yelled out to her as she was walking away. Jolene turned around and looked at Martinez from outside the fence. "The man who tried leaving a month ago, Gregg and his sister, The Governor had me track them down. When I did, he killed them, toyed with them first. When he finds out your gone, even though I don't want to…you know we have to do what we have to do." Martinez warned her.

"I'll be waiting." She turned and walked away.

It hurt her to hear those words come out of Martinez's mouth. Occasionally they would share a drink and talk for hours. He was her only true friend in Woodbury. She knew once Philip regained consciousness they will track her down and it would all be over. She knew very well Philip was capable of anything but she wouldn't let herself be afraid, not anymore.

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**You will find out more about Jolene in future chapters. Like for starters, why was Jolene handcuffed in a police station?**


	2. Promise

**Promise**

Dawn finally hit, Jolene had been running and walking all night avoiding bitters at any cost. There were not too many so she dogged them. The sunlight now peeked down through the trees making things easier, she could now see what was in her path but there were only trees in her path ahead. Jolene desperately wanted to rest. She was tired, hungry and scared but knew that stopping was not an option. The Governor could have his men out looking for her already and she couldn't take the risk.

Three bitters stumbled from behind the trees, revealing themselves from the right side of Jolene. It caught her off guard. She quickly pulled out the knife and stabbed one of them in the skull and quickly did the same to the next walker that was the closest. As she dug the knife deep into its skull it got stuck. She tried to pull it out but was quickly tackled down by the last bitter and her back pack fell off her shoulder, out of arms reach. She couldn't grab her gun that was in the back pack and the knife was in the dead bitters skull that she also couldn't reach for. The bitter laid on top of her trying to bite her face off, making awful growling sounds that penetrated deep in her ears.

She started moaning, almost wanting to cry as she was one inch away from the rotting bitters face. A vile smell swam through her nose; she tried to breath out of her mouth but if she did she was afraid she would vomit. She couldn't stand the smell of the rotting flesh on top of her.

"Catch!" A yell alarmed Jolene. She looked left and right but didn't see anyone.

"Up here!" The voice sounded again.

Jolene looked up in the trees and saw a little girl high up, sitting on a thick branch hiding in the leaves. The little girl tossed down her pocket knife and landed two inches away from Jolene's shoulder. She reached out, gripped the pocket knife tight and stabbed the bitter in the middle of its forehead. The bitter collapsed on her body and Jolene quickly pushed it away from her, not wanting any more blood on her clothes. She got up and looked up in the tree.

"Thank you." Jolene panted.

"You're welcome." The little girl replied. She didn't know what else to say to the stranger she just saved.

"What are you doing up there?" Jolene walked over to her back pack.

"Hiding."

"Who you hiding from?"

"Bad people."

"So you're alone?"

The little girl nodded.

"It's too dangerous to be out here alone. Are you sure they're all bad, the people you were with?"

"They were doing things, bad things." The little girl closed her eyes, the images of all the bad things she's seen burned in her mind.

"How long have you been up there?"

"All night."

Jolene scratched the back of her head knowing she couldn't leave her alone. She opened her back pack and pulled out a protein bar and a bottle of water.

"I don't know how long it's been for you but I can imagine you're thirsty."

The little girl eyed the protein bar and water bottle, wanting to devour it but was skeptical to trust the lady providing it. Jolene knew she had to earn her trust.

"I'm not the bad guy here. I'm running away just like you but it's too dangerous for you to be alone. I can help you but you need to trust me. I promise I won't hurt you."

The little girl sat there in silence, thinking of what to do. "Pinky promise."

Jolene released a small smile for comfort. "Pinky promise."

The little girl grabbed her small back pack and slowly climbed down the tree. She tripped over her foot and fell to the ground. "Are you okay?" Jolene quickly approached her.

"I'm okay." The little girl got up and dusted off her white dress that went down to her knees and black leggings.

"Nice hat." Jolene complimented her baseball cap that had a capital D in the middle

"Thank you." The little girl slowly took a few steps towards Jolene.

She put out her right pinky and Jolene bent down to her level and locked her pinky with the little girls promising she won't hurt her.

"I'm Jolene." Their pinky's released as she handed the protein bar and water bottle to the little girl.

"Clementine."

"That's a beautiful name."

"Thank you."

"Think you can walk and eat at the same time?" Jolene put her back pack over her shoulder.

Clementine nodded as she opened the protein bar.

"I think you dropped something." Jolene walked over to the tree to where Clementine dropped a photo on her way down.

"I got it." Clementine ran over and picked it up before Jolene got to it.

"Okay." Jolene backed away, respecting her belongings. "We should get a move on. It's not safe here." Jolene started walking as Clementine walked beside her.

**-Later That Night-**

Jolene and Clementine had been walking all day and found a small cabin. They both checked it out and decided to stay there for the night.

"How old are you?" Jolene asked as they were sitting down on the wooden floor in the living room.

"Nine. How old are you?"

"Twenty five, I think."

"You think?" Clementine looked to her as she reached in the can of peaches that they found in the cabin kitchen.

"I could be twenty six already. It's been like what, five months or so since all this started. I'm pretty sure my birthday passed."

"Then you are twenty six." Clementine declared.

"Okay. I'm twenty six. When's your birthday?"

"December twenty four."

"Oh you're a Christmas Eve baby."

"Yeah." Clementine looked to the floor. She knew she wasn't getting a birthday this year. Not the way it was before. Jolene noticed her change in facial expressions and knew she was pondering over everything that has happened to her.

"Hey, we'll find a way okay." Jolene caressed her shoulder for comfort.


	3. Stand Down

**Stand Down**

**-Morning-**

Jolene and Clementine left the cabin and continued on their search for hope. They got a few minutes into their walking and the sound of rustling and footsteps caught Jolene's attention.

"Shh." Jolene laid her index finger on her lips telling Clementine to stay quiet. She gently grabbed her shoulder and hid her behind a tree and Jolene hid beside the tree next to her. Now they could hear voices, the sound of two men walking and talking.

"Carl knows what's going on. We sheltered him from it but he's a smart kid." A man with a police uniform was talking to the other man with a crossbow in hand. Jolene observed the two quietly, hoping they will just pass by and be gone.

The man with the crossbow stopped walking. He noticed footprints on the ground. "These are fresh. Someone was here, two of them by the looks of it."

They both looked around, trying to see which way the footprints headed. Jolene's heart raced as she looked at Clementine. She knew they were going to find them.

Another shuffle in the woods caught the two men's attention and they looked the other way. Jolene poked her head out to see what was going on.

Four men appeared out of the woods with their shot guns in hand. The four men took notice to the two men and aimed their weapons to them. The officer and the man with the crossbow did the same. Both groups only several feet away from each other on guard, watching to see where the situation was headed.

Clementine slightly poked her head out and quickly brought her head back to hiding. She covered her mouth as if she was about to scream. Jolene looked to her scared that she would make a noise to draw attention but Clementine knew better. She didn't make a sound.

"No need to aim your weapons fellas. We bring you no harm." One of the men yelled out to the officer and the man with the crossbow. "We're just lookin for a little girl is all. She got lost. You guys wouldn't know anything about that would ya now?"

The two men knew by the looks of the four men that they were trouble. The officer nodded no as his gun stayed pointed at them.

"Okay. Well maybe we could talk. You guys holdin up anywhere? We have a camp, guys are more than welcome to come with. Food, water, girls, whatever you're into, don't matter us none."

The two men stayed on guard trying to plot out their next move. They knew if they attacked they were outnumbered. It was two against four.

"Let's go." Jolene whispered to Clementine.

Clementine and Jolene slowly walked away. They tip toed slowly until the men were out of eye sight. Clementine then stopped walking and looked back.

"Why'd you stop? Let's go." Jolene urged her.

"They're bad people, their looking for me."

"I know, that's why we're leaving." Jolene waved her arm, signaling her to keep walking.

"What about the other two guys? The police man and the other one. They need help?"

"They could be bad guys too, I'm not gonna risk it."

"He's a police officer. They're the good guys. Those guys are going to kill them."

"And they'll kill us to if we help." Jolene grabbed her arm and started walking.

Clementine looked down to the floor. She wanted to help the two men. She knew they were in trouble. Those four men were nothing but evil, that's why she ran from them. Jolene looked down at her. She couldn't stand to see a frown on her face.

Jolene groaned, giving in. "Stay behind the tree and don't move. If things go bad just run straight to the cabin." Jolene handed her the hunting knife and pulled out her gun. They slowly walked back to where the men were and Clementine hid behind the tree. Jolene hid as well then slightly poked out to see what was going on.

"Just turn back around and walk away." The officer negotiated with the four men.

"The laws don't apply anymore. Just because you wear that fancy outfit don't mean shit now. I'm done talkin, let's take what they got." One of the men walked forward and cocked his gun.

Jolene prayed that she would be able to make the shot. She's never used an actual gun. She's done a lot of paint balling but nothing compares to the real thing. She aimed her gun and pulled the trigger.

***Boom***

The shot alarmed all the men and guns fired. Jolene pulled the trigger again. She shot two men. She didn't kill them but one of the bullets went through a man's chest and the other on a man's leg. It was enough to make them go down to make it a fair fight.

The officer and the man with the crossbow were clueless to where the gun shots came from but took advantage of it and took down the four men. After the dust settled the two men looked around and vaguely made out two figures running away from the scene.

Jolene and Clementine ran away from the commotion and back to the cabin. Three walkers were up ahead and Clementine hesitated to keep going forward. Jolene grabbed her arm and ran around the walkers. Jolene was running as fast as she could as she held on to Clementine's arm, she was almost dragging her. Clementine tripped and fell on her knees. Jolene picked her up and held on to her. They could see the cabin up ahead and they ran inside. Jolene gently put her down and locked the cabin door.

"Go in the bedroom and hide. I'm going to keep a look out to make sure they didn't follow."

Clementine was shaken up, she didn't want to hide alone.

"It's okay. I won't let anything happen to you remember." She bent down to her level.

Clementine nodded and swallowed her fear as she slowly walked into the bedroom with the hunting knife in her small hands.

Jolene stood by the side of the window checking to see if she could spot anyone. She held on to the gun and tried to check how many bullets she had left. She was clueless when it came to guns and how they worked. As she tried to check she did not realize she had put the safety on.

After a while of waiting she went to check on Clementine. She walked into the room and she was nowhere in sight.

"Clementine?"

"Yes." She lightly responded.

Jolene got down on one knee and looked under the bed. "You okay?"

"Um hum." She mumbled.

"I am starving, how about you?"

"I could eat." Clementine slowly rolled out from under the bed.

"Should be another can of beans…" Jolene stopped mid sentence as she heard the sound of someone trying to open the door.

Clementine quickly hid under the bed and Jolene slowly closed the bedroom door, trying to stay quiet. Jolene's heart raced, palms started sweating with the gun in her hand. She wanted to hide but she stood three feet from the door waiting to shoot who was on the other side. She made a promise that she couldn't break to Clementine, so running and hiding was no longer an option.

The person on the other side kicked open the door and Jolene stood there with her gun aimed at the two men.

"Get out." She firmly warned them as she looked back and forth at them.

"We're not here to hurt you." The officer surrendered as he slowly put his gun down.

The man with the crossbow looked at the man he was with. He didn't know if he should let his guard down but the officer slightly nodded at him telling him to put down his weapon.

"Don't think I won't shoot. Turn back around and leave."

"We know you were the one who fired those shots. We wanted to thank you."

"Fine, you're welcome. Now get out!"

The officer took a small step into the cabin and Jolene aimed the gun to his face. The officer studied the gun and quickly took notice that the safety was on.

"Okay, we'll leave, but if you could just let me help you with one thing." The officer slowly walked towards Jolene and she froze wondering why he was so persistent. "You might want to take the safety off first, you know, so you could shoot us." The officer took the safety off from Jolene's gun then took a few steps back. She stood there, silent in time. Not only was she nervous about the two strange men but now she was embarrassed that the gun was not even ready to fire.

"We saw you with a child. Not entirely safe for you two to be out here. People will pass this cabin and they will check it out."

Jolene slowly put her gun down. "We'll manage."

"The man behind me, his names Daryl." The officer looked back to Daryl and then back to Jolene. "I'm Rick." He put out his hand wanting nothing but peace.

Jolene looked back and forth at Rick and Daryl, studying their every move. She didn't want to let her guard down. "Jolene." She introduced herself but refused to shake Rick's hand.

Rick put his hand down knowing that she was going to be tough on them.

"I wasn't going to, you know, help you guys. She has a bigger heart than I do. I was gonna leave and not think twice."

"Well we're glad she convinced you." Daryl finally spoke.

"We're holding up in a prison seven miles out. We have food, water, clothes…"

"No. No, get out." Jolene refused to let Rick finish.

"We have people…"

"I don't care." Jolene interrupted again. "I don't know your people and I don't know you. I'm not gonna do that again."

"We should go." Clementine slowly opened the bedroom door as she was listening to the whole conversation. "They look nice. He's a police officer." Clementine walked into the middle of Rick and Jolene. Jolene quickly pulled her off to the side getting her away from the two men.

Jolene bent down to her level. "No. You and I both know they could be dangerous. I'm not letting you and I get dragged off to a group of men…"

"We have women and children in our group. My son Carl, he's thirteen, Sophia, she's twelve."

"I don't care." Jolene looked back to Rick.

"You could have shot us at any time but you didn't. You stood down. Now that's showing me that deep down you want to trust us." Rick walked up to Jolene. "You saved our lives, let us repay you."

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**Will Jolene trust Rick and join his group or will she reject his offer?**


	4. Prison

**Prison**

"I'm sorry Clementine." Jolene looked down to her then back at Rick. "I can't. I'm not going off with another group. I don't trust you guys."

"Then I guess I'll just have to earn it then." Rick persisted. It would eat at him if he didn't do everything he could to change her mind. He couldn't leave them out here to die.

"You should head back; let everyone know what's going on." Rick walked over to Daryl.

"Alright then." Daryl knew he wouldn't be able to change his mind. Once Rick decided to help someone there's no changing his mind. "Be careful."

Rick nodded at Daryl then looked back to Jolene and Clementine.

"What are you doing?" Jolene questioned Rick when she saw Daryl walk away.

"I have all the time in the world to earn your trust." He slowly walked over to Jolene.

"Why the hell do you want us to go with you so bad?"

"Believe it or not there are still good people out here. I can't leave a woman and child alone in the woods."

"We don't need your help. We've managed so far."

"You don't need our help so that means you're stocked up on food, a car, steady roof over your head and extra ammo for that gun right? Another group will soon find this place and they'll take what little you have left. You sure you can handle that on your own?" Rick tried to make his point clear.

Jolene stood quiet not knowing what to say. She desperately wanted to trust him but she was too scared.

"Please Jolene. I want us to go." Clementine tugged her hand.

Jolene looked down to her, she just meet the little girl and she already adapted motherly instincts. She had to suck up her pride and give in to protect her.

"A prison?" She looked to Rick.

"Seven miles north of here. My group and I found it about two months or so ago. Fences, walls, crops, water, safe place to sleep at night."

"I don't trust you so why trust me?"

It took him a few seconds to gather his words. He wasn't sure how to answer that. "I didn't say I trust you, but we could."

Jolene stood quiet again.

"Twelve people, two kids, five women, five men including myself."Rick informed her.

Jolene gently grabbed Clementine's hand and dragged her to the kitchen. She opened a can of beans and handed it to her. "Rick and I will be outside the door talking okay. Stay inside unless I say otherwise. Keep your knife in hand." Jolene walked back to the living room of the cabin leaving Clementine in the kitchen.

"We'll talk outside." Jolene opened the door for Rick. He walked out and she followed behind him and gently closed the door.

"Fuck." Jolene groaned as she ran both hands through her hair. She didn't want to say any bad words in front of Clementine and needed air.

Rick stood there understanding her situation. A bitter stumbled out from behind the cabin and growled at them. Rick walked over to it, pulled out his hunting knife and stabbed it in the head. He pulled out the knife from the skull with a slight groan and wiped the knife on the patch of grass beside him, getting as much blood off of it as possible then put the knife away on the holster around his waist.

Jolene observed how he handled the bitter. Such knowledge and wisdom emitted from Rick, she knew he knew what it takes to survive.

"I don't even know you but I need your word." She walked up to him. "Give me your word as an officer and father that I can trust you because I don't know if I could do it again. You're a man so you don't know how it is to live out here as a woman, to trust someone. I just…I…I need to keep her safe." Jolene looked Rick straight in the eye.

Rick saw in her eyes that she had been through so much. He saw the part that wanted to trust him but it was broken and he wanted to repair it. "You can trust me. I give you my word." He put his hand out.

Jolene looked at his hand then back into his eyes. She bit her bottom lip and slowly put her hand out shaking his strong hand.

After a long walk Jolene stopped in her tracks as the prison made itself visible through the woods.

"Come on, we're almost there." Clementine stopped as she noticed Jolene was not beside her.

"I…I can't do it." Jolene stuttered.

"We have to. Police officers can not lie, it's the law." Clementine tried convincing her. She still had hope that there are good people in this cruel world and that Rick is one of them.

Jolene leaned her back against a tree, shut her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I gave you my word; let me prove to you how far that goes." Rick gently laid his right hand on her shoulder but kept his body distant from hers.

She opened her eyes looking into Ricks eyes and saw nothing but honesty then down to Clementine. She was so innocent and she knew she had to keep her that way. Clementine nodded and Jolene grabbed her hand and continued walking towards the prison.

They finally reached the fences of the prison and Rick walked up to Daryl and an Asian man who opened the gate. Jolene slowly followed Rick in, analyzing everything in her vision for anything suspicious.

"Anyone who saves our people definitely deserves a chance." The Asian man walked up to Jolene with his hand out. "I'm Glenn."

"Jolene. She's Clementine." She shook his hand.

Clementine walked up to Glenn and put her hand out as well.

"That's an interesting name." Glenn smiled at her as he shook her hand.

"This way." Rick walked into the prison with Jolene and Clementine behind him.

They walked in as the rest of the group was sitting down talking amongst themselves.

"Everyone this is Jolene and Clementine. They saved Daryl and I earlier today. That's Carol and her daughter Sophia, Hershel and his two daughters Beth and Maggie, Andrea, Shane, my son Carl and my wife Lori." Rick introduced everyone.

Jolene wondered for a split second why Rick mentioned his son but not wife when they met but she was more concerned with the dirty looks she got from Shane and Lori. They tried not to show it but Jolene knew right off the bat that they did not want her there.

"Great, two more mouths to feed. You're really going to trust a stranger?" Shane got up and walked up to Rick.

"Shane's right, we don't know her and what she's capable of." Lori held on to Carl.

"She's earned her spot and it's not up to you; I make the calls now remember?" Rick confronted Shane. Rick knew he would have trouble with him but he wouldn't let him call the shots anymore.

Jolene knew this would bring trouble to his group and she didn't want anything to do with it. Jolene grabbed Clementine's hand and walked back out of the prison.

"What are you doing?" Clementine questioned Jolene.

"Leaving." She walked toward the gate.

"Shane givin you hell?" Daryl walked up to them with Glenn by his side.

Jolene ignored them and kept walking.

"We can't go." Clementine persisted.

"Jolene!" Rick hollered out as he walked out of the prison and saw her walking away.

Clementine looked back and saw Rick jogging after them but Jolene did not stop walking.

"Hey." Rick blocked her path. "Where are you going?"

"Anywhere but here." She walked away from him.

"Shane won't be an issue. You don't need to worry about him." Rick held on to her shoulder. "You can't go back out there, it's too dangerous. You need to trust me, I gave you my word."

"Shane gets under everyone's skin. You'll learn to block it." Glenn interjected.

"You two can stay in cell block C. Follow me." Rick walked back into the prison.

Jolene didn't move a muscle but Clementine grabbed her hand and followed Rick into the cell block.

"You two should be comfortable in here, I know its not luxurious but you'll be able to get a good night's rest. Make yourselves at home."

"Thank you." Clementine looked up to Rick.

"You're welcome Clementine."

Clementine walked into the cell with Jolene and unpacked their back packs. Rick stood there for a moment looking at Jolene. He didn't know what to think of her yet. She has a story and he wanted to hear it. He wanted to flip all the pages in her book and know everything about her. He was mesmerized by her presence and didn't want to stop looking at her but he forced himself to walk away and give them their space.

Clementine sat down on the small metal cot and smiled. She was happy that she finally gets to sleep on a bed tonight.

"It's hot in here ain't it?" Jolene fanned her right hand to circulate fresh air to her face.

"Yeah but it's better than sleeping outside."

"I guess it is. You wanna go outside for some fresh air?" Jolene suggested.

"We're not leaving are we?"

"No, I just need air."

Clementine got off the bed and walked out of the cell block and outside to the prison yard with Jolene. Rick saw them exit the door from the corner of his eye and jogged after them with a pencil and notebook in hand.

"Jolene?" Rick called out looking around.

"Yeah?" Jolene answered.

Rick turned to his right and saw Jolene and Clementine leaning against the wall of the prison.

"Just uh…"

"Thought I was trying to leave again?" Jolene interrupted.

Rick didn't know how to respond to that.

"Just needed some air. It's really warm inside."

"Well if Beth's calendar is correct it's June." Rick walked over to Clementine and bent down to her level. "Sophia thought you could use this?" Rick handed her the notebook and pencil.

"Thank you." She smiled at Rick. "Can I go back in my cell?" Clementine looked to Jolene.

"I'll be there in a minute." Jolene nodded and Clementine walked into the prison.

"So you gonna keep your eyes on me?" She looked to Rick.

"Do I have to?"

"No, I guess not. I still don't want to be here but I have to for Clementine sake."

"You'll like it here." Rick reassured her as he was finally calming down from the headache that Shane and Lori had caused him.

Jolene closed her eyes as she relaxed her back against the cold concrete of the prison and Rick took that time to really look at her. His eyes looked up and down at her body. He's a married man and knew that he shouldn't be looking at her that way but he couldn't help himself. Something about her pulled him in. He had so many questions he wanted to ask her but didn't want to ambush her with that at the moment.

* * *

**Rick, you're married! Don't check out another woman! Is this the start of "something" for Jolene and Rick? Still too early to tell?**


	5. We all got a Past

**We all got a Past**

"How do you two know each other?" Andrea decided to ask Jolene the question everyone was thinking during dinner.

"She saved me. I was attacked by bitters and she was hiding in a tree. She tossed me her pocket knife and now we're here."

"Bitters? Clever, we call them walkers." Andrea took another bite of her food.

"Walkers? That actually sounds a lot better than calling them bitters. Ima start using that."

"What did you do before the world ended?" Hershel questioned.

Jolene sat there quietly and looked down to her food. She was hoping questions about her past didn't come up but it couldn't be avoided. The group stared at her, waiting for an answer. Rick's eyes were glued on Jolene, he couldn't help himself, he wanted to hear everything she had to say and Lori noticed the look on his face. Shane noticed that Lori noticed how Rick reacted in front of Jolene and Shane came to the conclusion that the reason why Rick fought for her to stay in the group is because he wanted her.

"Any reason why you don't want to talk about your past?" Lori asked waiting for an answer that she could attack Jolene with.

"Lori." Rick stared hard at Lori. He didn't want her to drive Jolene away.

Shane and Lori stared at her and knew something about her just didn't fit right. They knew it was tough for anyone to talk about the past when everyone you know is basically dead but they saw something different in her. Lori couldn't stand Rick being around her and Shane could automatically tell it was guilt. She was guilty of something and he wanted to know what it was.

"I uh." She swallowed her saliva as a knot crossed her throat. "I was a mechanic."

"So you know your cars?" Shane wanted confirmation.

"Yeah, I uh, started working on cars since I was eight. Family was pretty broke so we had to fend for ourselves. My brother taught me what he knew, said it was going to be an important skill as I got older…I guess he was right."

"You should help me on my car tomorrow, could use the help." Shane suggested. He wanted to interrogate her in private because he knew if he did it now Rick would stop him.

"Sure, anything to pull my weight around here." Jolene calmly accepted but was a nervous wreck inside.

"What happened to your family, do you have kids?" Sophia pushed her plate of food away.

Everyone looked to Jolene waiting for an answer. Jolene cleared her throat, she didn't want to answer any of the questions the group was asking. How could she forget her past if these people kept asking about it.

"Can't you see she doesn't want to talk about it." Carl looked to Sophia.

"It's uh, it's okay." Jolene sighed. "No kids, my husband and I were trying. Turns out I'm to blame on why I can't get pregnant. My mom died when I turned eighteen and my brother got emancipated and left when I was fourteen, never seen him since."

"No daddy?" Sophia asked again.

"Sophia." Carol looked down to her with a face that told her to be quiet as she pushed the plate of food back to Sophia for her to finish eating.

"Yeah, in Vegas from what my mom always ranted about. Never met him. I just um, don't have many great memories so I try not to think about my family."

Rick stared at Jolene, he knew she was feeling uncomfortable with all the questions but he was hoping she would say more about herself.

"Where were you holding up before you saved Rick and Daryl?" Maggie was curious to know. "I'm sorry about the questions…"

"It's okay. I'm a stranger, you guys are just curious." Jolene interrupted Maggie. "A man…Philip found me, took me into his small community of survivors in Woodbury. It was paradise."

"What happened?" Beth questioned.

"Philip had too much to drink…he uh, tried to have his way with me and I ran. His right hand man Martinez, my only friend there told me right before I left that they would find me and…and um…I know what he's capable of doing now, I know the truth. I should've know once he declared a new name for himself."

"What was that name?" Glenn asked.

"The Governor."

"Where did he find you?" Andrea dusted the crumbs off her shirt.

"I uh…" Jolene looked down to her food and her appetite diminished. "I don't…I…I don't want to talk about it." Jolene got up on both feet and sighed deeply. "May I be excused?"

"Sure." Hershel excused her.

Jolene walked out of the prison cafeteria and outside to the prison yard. She stood out there for a few minutes looking at the summer sun slowly disappearing into the night, trying to clear her thoughts.

"You okay?" Rick slowly walked over to Jolene.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She faked a smiled.

"Sorry about the group bombarding you with all those questions."

"You guys are curious, it's normal to ask away." Jolene stared at the sunset.

"If you ever need to vent…"

"Thanks, but I'm okay." Jolene interrupted.

"Anything about yourself you don't mind sharing?" Rick slightly pushed the question bar, he just wanted to know more about the strange woman.

Jolene stood there quiet, discarding all the bad memories and trying to think of the good ones. "Hawkeye."

Rick slightly tilted his head to the right with curiosity.

"My doberman. Only thing in the world that I loved more than chocolate and flowers."

Rick chuckled at the name she gave her dog.

"He was probably smarter than me; well trained and howled along to the music I would blare. He would hit the notes too, that dog was a better singer than me." Jolene smiled.

Rick was quickly captivated by her smile. The curves of her smile, the way the sunset lit up her brown eyes with blood orange and the natural waves in her hair seduced his eyes.

"I'm sure you're not that bad at singing." Rick assured, quickly glancing down at her body.

Jolene stopped avoiding eye contact and finally realized the color of his eyes. Piercing blue and it stunned her a bit. Her stomach overflowed with anxiety. She looked back to the sunset; she didn't want to lock eyes for long.

"You and Lori…felt a lot of tension going on there." Jolene leaned her back on the prison wall.

Rick exhaled and leaned his back to the wall next to her. "Long story."

"I could go for a good drama story." She looked back at Rick.

"Shane and Lori…"

"Say no more, I know the story now."

Rick glared at Jolene as she interrupted him.

"Somethin happened between them and you know, they know that you know. The vibes and looks that I've felt and seen tell me that she doesn't know what she wants. You're her husband and she's forced to stick by your side but Shane gave her something you didn't. Marriage is on the rocks and it looks like you're the only one trying to save the ship from sinking." Jolene jabbered.

Rick couldn't believe she got the story down with the very little information she had.

"I take it by the look on your face I'm right." She sighed.

"You're good."

"I know how people think and I've been around people like Shane. Why do you let him stay here?"

"We were partners, was my best friend. Took care of my family when I got shot. They thought I was dead. I know Shane and Lori wish..."

"Wait, they thought you were dead and Shane is an officer as well?"

"Yeah he is. He was there with me on a high speed chase. Didn't see one of the bastards in the car and got shot. I was in a coma and woke up not knowing about the walkers, took me a while but I found my family thanks to Glenn."

"Shit, you were in a coma? And you still managed to find your family? Wow."

"There's strength in people. People are the best defense against walkers. We all need to work together no matter how much pain Shane and Lori cause and how much animosity I'm starting to feel. Anything to keep Carl safe."

"You got balls." Jolene inhaled the summer air. She felt Rick's pain, she understood what he's going through.

"Well not everyone here thinks so." Rick's right hand rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well screw them…no offense. I can see these people look to you for answers; keep them safe, I admire that. It was the reason why I stood by Philips side all that time even when I knew something was up. There are two types of leaders, the lawful good and power hungry...and Philip was power hungry. You, I can see that you are not like him and I'm glad you're not. What you're doing, taking leadership, it can't be an easy job." Jolene looked back into his eyes.

Rick smirked; he was elated that she was on his side.

They stood there next to each other in silence, looking at the sunset. Jolene stretched her arms and Rick took notice of the visible scar on her right shoulder.

"What happened to your shoulder?"

Jolene's left hand covered the scar and quickly closed herself from Rick. "Nothing."

Rick stood quiet, he felt like an idiot for asking. They both stood there and looked at the few scattered walkers making their way to the fence.

"Ima check in on Clementine." Jolene marched into the prison.

Jolene found Clementine in Carol's cell along with Carl and Sophia.

"We're going to have story time; you're welcome to join us." Carol offered.

"Maybe next time, just wanted to check in on Clementine." Clementine smiled at Jolene as she handed a book to Carol. "When you're done there come back our cell okay."

"Okay." Clementine answered.

Jolene walked to her cell and sat on the small bed with her back to the cell door. She picked up the hunting knife and noticed it was losing its sharpness as she touched the blade.

Daryl walked up to her cell and saw Jolene looking at her blade. He quickly looked her up and down and couldn't deny that she was attractive but nothing more crossed his mind. He wasn't about to make a move on a woman who's obviously been through a lot.

"You seen Sophia?" Daryl finally spoke after staring at her for a moment.

"Uh, she's with Carol in her cell." Jolene quickly got off the bed and turned to him.

Daryl quickly debated if he should strike up a conversation.

"You alright?" He questioned. He didn't want to just leave, it would've been rude to not ask he thought to himself.

"Yeah, I'm fine" She looked down to the knife. "Hey you wouldn't happen to have one of those knife sharpening stones would you?"

Daryl walked into her cell and took the knife out of her hand. His index and middle fingers ran through the blade, feeling the dullness of it and put it in his pants pocket.

"This will suit you better." He pulled out his hunting knife and handed it to her.

"I can't take…"

"Just take it."

"Thank you." She grabbed it from his hand.

"Don't let Lori and Shane get to you. Bunch of drama queens. We all got a past, far as I know, you earned your stay here." Daryl mentioned before he disappeared.


	6. Practice

**Practice**

**-The Next Day-**

Shane dropped the hood of the car as he finished tuning it up with Jolene.

"What are you hiding?" Shane bluntly confronted.

"What?"

Rick and Daryl walked out of the prison to talk to Shane about the next run into town but Rick stopped Daryl from walking before Shane and Jolene could see them. Rick wanted to see how Jolene handles herself with Shane.

"You don't want to talk about yourself and the past, tells me you're hiding somethin." Shane took a step closer to her.

"Not everyone gets to live the good life. What am I supposed to say? Tell you about my fucked up family, how they never cared for me, that I had to fend for myself my whole life, how many times I've almost died, how my self esteem was so low that everyone took advantage of me in ways I wish I could forget, how I tried to kill myself because I was so fuckin depressed? Is that what you want me to tell you Shane? I don't want to talk about my past because there is nothing good about it!" She poured her heart out.

"You wanna talk about hiding something? Secrets? How about the secret you're keeping from Rick? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on between you and Lori and I've only been here a day. Rick ain't stupid, he knows how fucked up you are. Some friend you are putting Carl at odds with his mother and father." Jolene tossed the dirty rag she wiped her grimy hands with at Shane's chest and stomped away from him.

Jolene wasn't lying but she didn't tell him everything, just enough to get him off her back. She didn't tell him the one thing she knew Shane would make a big deal of about her past. Rick wanted to comfort her but he didn't want to make it obvious that he eased dropped on her conversation.

Jolene was on her way to her cell when Maggie stopped her.

"Hey Jolene? The girls and I are doing our nails; did you want to join us?"

"Uh, sure."

Jolene walked with Maggie to the other side of the prison and sat down next to Beth.

"Jolene, look at my nails." Clementine raised her pink fingernails in the air to show them off.

"Hope its okay?" Beth looked to Jolene uncertain of her reaction that she painted Clementine's nails without permission.

"Totally fine with me. I wasn't aware people still paint their nails these days." Jolene smiled.

"Went on a run with Glenn the other day, didn't find much but found some nail polish and hair products, figure we could all use it." Maggie handed me a small cardboard box of nail polish.

"The girls huh? Why isn't Lori here?" Jolene questioned. She was glad Lori wasn't around but was curious to know why.

"She went to go find Shane." Carol answered. Carol knew what that ment. Just another excuse for Lori to fool around behind Rick's back.

Jolene, Carol, Andrea, Maggie, Beth, Clementine and Sophia were sitting in a circle exchanging stories of the good old days. They mostly talked about the foods they missed eating, music they listened to, movies and of course boys.

Rick and Glenn walked in the room the girls were in and smiled. Rick was glad to see Jolene spending time with the group and Glenn was glad to see a smile on Maggie's face.

"Glenn, Daryl and I are going on a run tomorrow." Rick announced to the girls.

"I'm goin." Maggie looked to Rick and Glenn wondering why they didn't mention her name.

"No you're not. It was a close call last time. I'll feel a lot better if you just stay here." Glenn expressed his decision.

"Glenn…"

"Please." Glenn interrupted Maggie.

"Okay." Maggie got up and walked over to Glenn. She kissed his cheek and left the room. "Be right back!" She informed the girls.

"Three? Might as well make it a four man team, I'll tag along." Jolene got up and looked to Rick.

"We can handle it…"

"I'm going." Jolene confirmed. "You can't expect me to be locked in a prison for the rest of my days now do you?" She walked past Rick and out of the room. "I'm goin." Her voice echoed through the prison Halls.

Jolene walked outside and saw Daryl from a distance working on a Motorcycle. "You need any help?" She wondered over to him.

"Just about done already. Can you hand me that rag on the floor?"

Jolene reached down and tossed the oily rag to Daryl. He wiped his hands down and took a few steps towards Jolene. "Shane givin you hell huh?"

"Hell's an understatement. The whole time with him was a kick in the balls if I had any."

Daryl chuckled at her statement. "He's just tryin to break you, run ya outta here."

"I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for Clementine. I wasn't sure if I could trust you people. There are some pretty sadistic people out there." Jolene looked down to the ground where his crossbow laid. "You think you could show me how to work it?"

Daryl looked into Jolene's eyes and saw she was looking at his crossbow. "You think you can handle somethin that big?"

Jolene felt herself turn red and couldn't help but smirk at how that sounded. Daryl briefly chuckled, he knew where her mind was by the look on her face.

"I guess we'll just have to see." Jolene quickly looked up and down at Daryl as he looked down to his crossbow. She couldn't help but look at his arms. Very strong and smooth looking.

"Hey Jolene, my dad wants you to come with us to gun practice." Carl yelled out as he stood a few feet away from Jolene then walked away.

"I guess you'll have to show me how to work it later?" Jolene flashed a flirty smile at Daryl before she walked away from him.

Daryl couldn't help but look at her walk away. Her long hair and the way her hips moved paralyzed him. He wondered if she was talking about the crossbow or if she meant something else.

Jolene, Rick, Carl, Lori, Shane, Andrea, Beth, and Carol were quite a distance away from the prison. Rick didn't want to attract walkers with the gun shots and thought it best to get out of the prison for practice.

Andrea was showing Beth and Carol how to use the guns before they started shooting and Lori stood behind Shane as Shane was teaching Carl how to aim better. Lori complained about how Carl was not ready for a gun but Shane and Rick disregarded her reasons. Shane and Rick knew it was important for Carl to know how to shoot.

Jolene pulled out her gun and Rick took it out of her hands. He checked the cylinder of her gun and saw only one bullet left. He pulled out his Colt Python and handed it over to Jolene. Rick showed her exactly how to use it and when the safety was on. Jolene then turned to the cans and bottles that were lying on an old wooden fence and shot at one. She missed the target and was quickly engulfed with disappointment. Lori saw her miss and smiled at her bad aiming.

"Focus now." Rick positioned himself behind Jolene.

Rick found the perfect excuse to get close and touch Jolene. He wrapped his arms around her and his hands firmly moved her hands that held on to his gun up an inch.

"Breath in and exhale when you pull the trigger." Rick's voice tickled Jolene's right ear. She loved the way his chest pressed up against her back and his smooth voice lingered in her ear.

Rick took advantage of the moment to quickly look down her black tank top. Two seconds of looking down her top and he knew he had to let go even though he didn't want to. Jolene couldn't help but shiver as Rick let go of her. She liked the way his arms and strong hands held on to her.

Jolene felt Lori's eyes on her but shook it off to concentrate. She inhaled and pulled the trigger as she exhaled.

"There you go." Rick smiled at Jolene.

Jolene repeated the step and pulled the trigger again. All five rounds went through the cans perfectly. They all stood out there for a good while firing into the targets as Rick kept an eye on Jolene and Carl.

"You learn quickly." Rick paid her a compliment.

"Well I got a great teacher." Jolene smiled to Rick as she reloaded the gun.

Rick walked over to Carl to see how he was doing and Jolene noticed the dirty looks on Lori's face.

"Good shot Jolene!" Beth called out to her.

Jolene smiled to Beth and quietly slipped away from the group and back to the prison. Glenn was on look out and opened the gate for her.

"Rest of the group still practicing?" Glenn questioned.

"Yeah, just needed to get away." Jolene helped close the gate.

"Shane and Lori giving you a hard time?"

"I can handle them. Where's Clementine?"

"In the cafeteria with Sophia and Daryl."

"I'ma go check up on her." Jolene walked away from Glenn.

Jolene stood by the open door of the cafeteria and looked in. Daryl, Sophia, and Clementine were sitting down making paper airplanes. Clementine was giggling, Sophia was smiling and Daryl had a small smile on his face.

"Throw it!" Clementine looked up to Daryl.

He got up and threw the airplane. It crashed down to the floor without going far and Clementine and Sophia laughed at his attempt.

"Aw man!" Daryl laughed at how bad he was at making it fly.

"Hi Joe!" Clementine looked to Jolene as she threw her airplane.

"I got a nick name now?"

"Daryl came up with it." Clementine giggled.

"Hey, you ratted me out." Daryl looked to Clementine and all she did was innocently giggle with Sophia.

"How was practice?" Daryl walked up to Jolene and leaned his shoulder on the cafeteria door.

"Good, pretty much got my aim down. Didn't take you for a babysitter." Jolene smirked.

"Badass at day, babysitter by evenin." Daryl smirked back.

"So what are you at night?" Jolene looked him up and down knowing he would notice her look.

"Maybe you'll find out." Daryl softly replied. He now knew that Jolene was flirting and even though he liked it he wasn't sure if he should cross the line with her. He knew how Carol felt about him even though she never made it clear and he didn't want to be in the middle of anything.

"Find out what?" Carol interjected.

"If it's a full moon tonight." Jolene quickly lied.

"I guess you'll have to wait and find out." Carol replied.

"Hey Clem, let's go do your hair." Jolene motioned her hand towards herself.

"Clem?"

"If I get a nick name so are you." Jolene smiled.

* * *

**Well Seems like Rick really likes Jolene and I think maybe Daryl is too. But Jolene can't have Rick because he's married so will she proceed with Daryl or take on a married man?**


	7. Someone to Confide in

**Someone To Confide in**

_*******Jolene's dream*******_

_"No!" Jolene screamed her lungs out as The Governor was shooting everyone in the prison. "Rick! Clementine!" Jolene looked to them in terror as The Governor walked up to them and shot them in the head. "No!"_

_"You should know better, running only takes you so far until it catches up with you again." The Governor pushed Jolene up against the wall, squeezing her neck tightly. Jolene gasped for air, she felt herself fading._

_"You killed them, you killed them all. You brought this upon yourself for being the coward that you are!" The Governors voice echoed through her barely conscious ears. "Jolene!"_

**_ *****End dream*****_**

"Jolene!"

Jolene immediately jumped out of her bed and pulled the knife out from under her pillow.

"Jolene, hey, it's okay. It was just a dream." Glenn gently touched her shoulder to calm her down.

Jolene stood by her bed, panting in cold sweat. "Wha, what?"

"It was just a dream." Glenn moved his hand off her and took a step back.

"Right…right, yeah, I know. You're okay, Rick's okay, Clementine's okay, it…it's just a dream. I know that." Jolene rubbed her hands down her face, wiping off the cold sweat.

"Came to tell you we're leaving in a while so you might want to get ready. Can I get you anything?"

"No, no, I'm fine. I'll be out in a few." Jolene turned her back to Glenn and grabbed her clothes to get ready for the day.

Jolene walked outside to the prison yard after she freshened up and bumped into Rick.

"Hey Rick, I forgot to give this back to you yesterday." She pulled out his Colt Python and handed it to him.

"Hold on to it, you'll need it for today."

"Okay. Are we all ready to go?" Jolene looked into his eyes.

"Daryl's checking the car, should be ready in a few minutes. You sure you wanna come with us? I would feel better if you stayed here."

"I'm sure; it's a beautiful day for a run." Jolene looked up to the blue sky with her right hand hovering over her eyebrows to block the sun in her eyes.

Rick couldn't help but stare at her, the way the sun lit her up. His eyes had a mind of their own, he just had to gaze down at her body as she was looking up to the sky. He didn't want her to go for safety reasons but was glad to have her by his side.

"Rick, I've been doing a lot of thinking and I think Clementine should learn how to use a gun. I'm not saying that she should have one but to know the mechanics of it. I know she's young but I think I'll feel a lot better if she knew. You never know, anything can happen. Do you think you can show her?"

"You want me to teach her?"

"Well, yeah. You're a great teacher, you taught me well." Jolene looked to him.

Rick nodded slightly. "Okay."

"Rick, can I talk to you?" Lori popped out of nowhere and stood right in front of Rick.

"Do you mind?" Lori looked to Jolene, hinting her to give them their privacy.

"Yeah, I kinda do mind. You can take your conversation somewhere else. It's a huge prison, I was here first." Jolene stood up for herself.

Lori couldn't believe what she just said. "Rick." Lori looked to Rick waiting for him to defend her.

"Don't." Jolene looked to Rick as he was about to speak. "I'm not leaving because of you…" Jolene now stared at Lori. "I'm leaving because I need to talk to Clementine." Jolene walked past Lori and out of their vision.

"Clementine?" Jolene walked behind her as she was sitting down on the concrete floor, coloring in her notebook.

"I drew you something Joe." Clementine ripped out a page from the notebook and handed it to her. "It's all of us, our new family."

Jolene stared at the drawing. She drew everyone in the prison. "That's beautiful Clem. Ima keep it forever." Jolene folded the drawing and put it in her pants pocket. "Sweetheart, I've been doing a lot of thinking and I think you should learn how to use a gun."

"I don't want to." Clementine continued to color.

"I know, I'm not a big fan of you using a gun either but…"

"I used one before, I don't want to use it again and I don't want you to go. Why can't you just stay here with me?" Clementine looked up to Jolene.

Jolene didn't know how to respond to that. This was just too new for her; she didn't know how to talk to children and was a little on edge on the fact that Clementine admitted to using a gun before. "Okay, so you used a gun before and I know you probably don't want to talk about it but you know I won't judge you right. If you need to talk I'm here for you and I have to go out there."

"No you don't. You can just stay here. No one is forcing you to go."

"I have to go for reasons you don't understand, I…"

***Whistle*** "Ready to go?" Daryl hollered out to Jolene.

Jolene looked out to Daryl then back to Clementine.

"Can I get a hug?" Jolene bent down to her level.

Clementine got up and gave Jolene a quick hug then went back to coloring. Jolene knew she was upset but didn't know what else to do or say.

"Please come back." Clementine turned her page and continued drawing.

"You know I'll be back." Jolene looked at her for another second before she walked away.

**-Town-**

"Daryl and Glenn will hit North, Jolene and I will take south. We'll meet back here in two hours." Rick glanced down at his wrist watch as he gave orders.

Rick and Jolene walked into Adventure Plus, a hunting store and carefully checked around the place for any walkers. Jolene opened the back door for employees and a walker stumbled forward to her, completely startling her. "Fuck!"

"Jolene!" Rick yelled as he ran over to her.

Jolene griped her knife tight, pushed the walker up against the wall and stabbed the walker in the middle of its skull.

Rick stood there out of breath, glad that she wasn't hurt.

"I got it." Jolene looked to Rick like it was no big deal and wiped her knife on the shirt of the dead again walker.

"Looks like we're in the clear now." Rick verified as he walked into the back room. "Let's take what's worth taking."

Jolene walked around the store looking for anything useful. People have obviously been in this store already, all the weapons and anything worth taking were taken off the shelves and walls. She moved shelves and tipped over boxes but nothing was worth taking.

She casually walked over to the clothes section. Not many people thought about taking the clothes off the rack so Jolene looked through them. She figured she could use more clothes since the ones she has now are ripping and covered with stains.

She turned around to see where Rick was. He was still in the back room, out of her sight so she quickly emptied her pants pocket, took them off and exchanged them for black skinny jeans. She picked up her wallet and picture that Clementine drew for her and put them in the pockets of her new pants.

She then looked around for a shirt. She turned back around to make sure Rick wasn't there. She took off her tank top and tossed it to the floor, leaving her black bra on. She picked out a white tank top and a cute short sleeve cotton shirt.

Rick walked out of the back room and stopped in his tracks as he saw Jolene without a top on. He was in awe. He stared at Jolene's naked back and quickly took notice of the tattoo on her lower back. He was surprised to find out she had a tattoo and was even more surprised to see her changing. He knew he was invading her privacy but couldn't help it, he liked what he saw. He felt himself getting excited by her long pony tail, black bra straps and the tattoo that he desperately wanted to touch. The things he wanted to do to her was clouding his right judgement to look away.

Jolene started to feel like she was being watched and knew it was Rick. She felt herself blush, she knew his eyes were on her and she didn't do anything about it. She found herself being turned on by the thrill of being watched by a sexy married man. She slowly adjusted her bra straps for show then reached over for the tank top and put it on.

"Find anything?" Rick finally spoke once she was clothed.

"Um, nothing." She turned to Rick. "Looks like this place has been raided already. I just figured I could use some new clothes." She put on the shirt and buttoned it up half ways.

"I uh." Rick cleared his throat as he walked over to her trying not to make it obvious of what he just saw. "Found a gun and four crossbow arrows that Daryl will be happy about."

"Well let's not let this place go to waste, you should get a few shirts and pants. I think we could all use some new clothes. You know Carl's size right?"

"Yeah."

"There are some cute shirts over there, Lori might like them." Jolene pointed out as she walked over to the shoe section.

"Lori was pretty pissed." Rick followed Jolene.

"When is she not?" She mumbled to herself as she took off her shoes and exchanged them for boots.

"I yelled at her." Rick sighed. "I didn't want to but she kept pushing my buttons."

Jolene looked up to Rick as she was fixing her boots. They were still strangers to each other and she was surprised to hear him opening up to her about his marriage.

"She bad mouthed you, told me I'm putting everyone in danger by bringing you in."

"You shouldn't have yelled." Jolene stood up and looked to Rick. "I don't need you to defend me. If she bad mouths me then let her. I couldn't care less."

"I couldn't help it, the nasty things she said about you, told me I couldn't keep my own son safe, that I don't care about our marriage." He felt himself slowly losing faith everyday with Lori's attitude and actions towards him.

"Rick, she's your wife; if you defend another woman of course she's going to get angry. I'm a big girl, I can defend myself but as for everything else she said, I think you need to take her into a room alone and talk everything out, yell at each other if you have to but don't leave the room until she gives you a legit answer. She can't have you and Shane on the side. What Lori is doing is not fair to Carl. I don't know your story well but I think that's what you need to do. She's obviously lost sight of who she has in front of her. Yes, I don't know you well but you seem like a great guy. A loving father, caring, strong, brave, level headed, sexy man." Jolene quickly swallowed the knot in her throat as she realized she said sexy when she meant to say handsome.

She tried to play it off cool, hoping he wouldn't say anything about it. She didn't want him to know what she was starting to feel for him. Even though they had just met the other day she already knew he was not like any other man.

Jolene caught a glimpse of a few holsters and turned away from Rick. She grabbed a leg holster and wrapped it around her right leg, pulled out Rick's gun and put it away on the holster along with her hunting knife.

Rick stared at her. He loved the style of clothing she picked out, how bad ass she looked with the holster wrapped around her leg and now he couldn't stop thinking about everything she said. He was starting to wish he wasn't married.

"I overheard your conversation with Shane." Rick confessed. He didn't feel right hiding anything from her.

Jolene turned around and looked to Rick as he was walking over to her. "I'm sorry about your past."

Jolene looked down to the floor in deep thought. "Yeah, well…I guess you have some questions, huh?"

"No." Rick stared deep into her eyes. "I won't badger you with questions but I'm hoping you'll come to me if you ever wanna to talk." Rick walked away and started picking out clothes for Carl.

* * *

**Oh, naughty Rick. Give Jolene her privacy! What do you all think so far?**


	8. Jealousy

**Jealousy**

Jolene stepped one foot out of the hunting store and was suddenly pulled out and put into a choke hold. Jolene quickly wrapped her right leg around the man's leg, bent forward and used all her strength to flip him over. The man landed hard on his back, groaning in pain and she kicked his face, striking his mouth. She finally got a good look at the man and couldn't believe who it was.

"Jensen?" Jolene stared at him in disbelief.

Rick pointed his gun to the man's face and cocked it

"You gonna tell your boyfriend to put his gun down?" Jensen spit out blood from the kick in the face and looked at Rick from the corner of his eyes. He just realized who he had almost hurt.

Jolene without saying a word laid her hand over Rick's gun. Rick glared at her in confusion.

Jolene reached out, grabbed his hand and pulled him up, brining him in for an emotional hug.

"Your husband?" Rick questioned.

"Oh God no." Jolene released the hug and looked to Rick. "Best friend. Rick, Jensen. Jensen, Rick." Jolene introduced them to each other.

"Jensen what are you doing out here?" She looked to him.

"Same as you. Lookin for anything to keep me alive?"

"Are you alone?"

"Yeah, I took off four days ago from a group. After I stood up for myself and told them what they were doing was wrong things got pretty violent."

"Jolene, can I have a word?" Rick gripped her wrist and pulled her off to the side.

"Rick, I have to go. He and I go way back and I can't leave him alone. He's the only person who's ever been there for me and I can't abandon him. I appreciate you takin me in but…"

"You're leaving?" Rick slightly raised his voice. "Look, Jolene…"

"Shane and Lori are already bitchin to you about me joining your group. I don't want to bring anymore trouble to you."

"They don't have a say on this, I'm just…" Rick was starting to get frustrated, he already knew he wouldn't like Jensen but he didn't want to lose Jolene. "We'll make it work." Rick persisted; he was going to compromise until she would stay.

"I can't do that, Shane…"

"Screw Shane, we'll make it work." Rick glanced over at Jensen. He hated this, he wanted Jolene all to himself and he knew it was selfish but couldn't help his feelings.

The car ride back to the prison felt like an eternity for Rick. He would glance back at Jensen from the rear view mirror like if he stole Jolene from him. Rick interrogated him as calmly as possible to make it sound like he was just striking up conversation but he was trying to find anything about him to cast him out. Rick hated the fact that he seemed to be pretty normal. Daryl and Glenn asked a few questions themselves and accepted Jensen's responses.

"Who's that?" Shane walked out of the prison, putting on that macho, bad ass act.

"Jensen. He's going to be pulling his weight. Jolene vouched for him and I vouch for Jolene's judgment."

Shane smirked angrily as he scratched the back of his head. "This group has been through hell and you're gonna let it happen again Rick! You can't trust them, you don't know them!"

Hershel was outside listening to the commotion and walked up to Jensen. "Let me take a look at that." Hershel insisted when he noticed his swollen, dried up bloody lip from Jolene's kick. Hershel escorted Jensen into the prison and Jolene followed, leaving Rick and Shane to battle it out as Lori was snooping in on them.

Jolene walked to her cell and saw Clementine sitting down on the bed with her back to the door, staring down at something in her lap.

"Clementine?" Jolene whispered as she walked over and sat down next to her.

Clementine quickly hid what she was holding under the pillow. Jolene caught a glimpse of what it was; it was the photo that she saw Clementine drop when they first met. Jolene pulled out her wallet from her back pocket, opened it and pulled out a picture.

"It's okay if you don't want to show me your picture." Jolene stared at her picture. "Pictures were my obsession. I wanted to be a photographer but things got in the way. Hawkeye, my dog." Jolene handed her the picture of her dog Hawkeye. "He was the only thing in the world that I loved. I know he's just a dog but it hurts just as bad to lose him."

Clementine gazed at the picture of the dog then pulled out the picture she hid under the pillow and handed it over to Jolene. "I saved Lee like I saved you. He took care of me when my parents never came back." Clementine looked down in sorrow.

Jolene didn't want to ask any questions about him. If Clementine wants to talk about it then she will but she respected her feelings if she didn't talk about it. "He looked like a good man." She stared at the picture.

They sat there in their own silence mourning over the past for a moment.

"Clem, I'm not gonna sugar coat it. The decisions we make now determine how we live. No more kid stuff. People are gonna die. Everyone in this group is going to die and I'm going to die. There's now way you could ever be ready for it. We can't stop it from happening, you just need to accept it and try to be ready for it. There comes a time in your life when you are faced with a tough decision and you need to know how to handle it. Please understand that you need to know how to handle a gun. Anything can happen at any time and you need to be ready for it because it's the only way to survive now. I know it's scary but I'll be right there by your side for as long as I keep breathing. We pinky promised, remember?"

Clementine sat there listening to Jolene's words with tears rolling down her face. She knew what she was saying was true but she just kept hoping it wasn't, that she will wake up in her bed and her parents would tell her everything is okay.

"Okay." She whispered.

**-One Week Later - Dusk-**

Jolene was killing walkers by the fence with Glenn, Maggie and Andrea. After they got rid of the majority around the fence they decided to call it a day except for Jolene. She stood behind stabbing every walker that got close to the fence.

"Joe?" Hershel crept up behind her.

Jolene and Hershel have spent some time together lately. In some way you can say they were bonding. He taught her how to tend to the crops and animals and all the medical knowledge he can teach her.

"Yeah." Jolene turned to him.

"You should come inside, take a break, get a drink of water. You're going to wear yourself out especially being in the sun all day. Daryl came back with a huge buck, should be ready about now. You need to eat."

Jolene ignored his caring nature. "How was your day?" She asked.

"Jensen helped me with the crops today. We got tomatoes ready to go." Hershel didn't know why she would ask about his day but he humored her and answered.

Jolene walked up to another roaming walker that came close to the fence and stabbed it in the skull. "Killing all these walkers would go a lot faster if I was on the other side." She mumbled to herself.

"Rick won't allow it."

"Well I guess I'll have a talk with the officer on patrol then." Jolene walked past Hershel to find Rick.

Jolene couldn't just stand around doing nothing. She needed to keep herself busy, to keep her mind distracted. She hated the fact that she was starting to develop feelings for Rick. She wished his marriage would fail so she could get a shot with him and she hated herself for thinking that. She was happy that her best friend Jensen is alive but was angry at Shane and Lori for making them feel like outcasts.

"Joe." Jensen walked over to her. "You okay? You've been at the fence all day. Aren't you tired?"

"I'm fine." She looked into his hazel eyes.

A silence hit them both. Jensen knew her to well; he knew she was just trying to keep busy to distract herself from the problems bearing down on her.

"I went to your house…you weren't there." Jolene confessed.

"I found out the police found you. Went down to the station to see you but you weren't there. When I got home I found my wife…" Jensen hesitated to finish. His first encounter with a walker was his wife; she ate their Golden Retriever, the dog Jolene saw in the middle of the living room that day. "Didn't they have you behind bars? How'd you get out?"

"I managed to escape."

"I hate to ask…I didn't want to bring any of it up but do these people know about it? Shane keeps asking a lot of questions about you and me and everything about our past like he knows something is up."

"They don't know. There's no point of telling them. Shane and Lori don't trust me already; I don't need the rest of the group to feel that way."

"I'm sure if you do tell them they'll understand. It…"

"No!" Jolene interrupted. "What happened in the past stays in the past, what matters is who we are now and what we do to survive. I got a little girl in there who trusted me with her life. I'm going to do what it takes to keep her alive. She doesn't need another broken group."

"Okay." Jensen breathed.

"I'm glad you're here." Jolene leaned in for a hug.

Jensen wrapped his arms around her back, holding her tight. His right hand brushed through her hair to comfort her but he really just wanted to feel her, he hasn't felt the touch of a woman for a very long time. He loved how she felt and wanted to let her know how he truly felt for her but now wasn't the time. She was fragile and he needed to handle her with care.

They stood there hugging in relief in the summer dusk and Rick was looking right at them through the scope of his shot gun in the guard tower. He couldn't stand Jensen, didn't want him in the prison but he's the only thing keeping Jolene here. Jolene and Jensen spent a lot of time together and Rick hated it. He wanted her to be with him and he knew he shouldn't be bothered by it; he's a married man still trying to fix his marriage… a marriage he somewhat hoped failed. He was getting real tired of trying. He was falling out of love with Lori and more in love with Jolene. But is it really _love_? Or is just infatuation…a crush? Rick thought to himself.

"Joe! Dinners ready." Carl yelled out as he walked out of the prison.

"No thanks little man, I'll pass tonight."

"Hershel said you should come in, you need to stay hydrated, he didn't see you drink anything all day. No one did."

"I'll be fine. You seen your dad around?

"He's in the guard tower keeping watch."

"Thanks." Jolene headed over to the tower.

"Rick?" Jolene approached Rick from behind as he was looking out to the yard of the prison.

Rick slowly turned to look at her.

"I know it's safer inside but killing walkers will go a lot faster if I was outside the gate."

"No. We're in a controlled environment in here, outside those gates anything can happen. There's not many walkers, it's not a big threat right now."

"Rick, I know you're the leader, I've never questioned your orders and you are doing a great job but if I want to go outside these fences I'm…"

"If something happens to you out there it could be too late to do anything about it." Rick interrupted. "We've had more in our group and people's lives were lost because it wasn't a controlled environment. I need to make sure everyone is safe. You're not going out there." He put his foot down as he firmly raised his voice. "Go back in the prison with Jensen." Rick muttered as he turned his back to her.

"I'm sorry." Jolene quickly surrendered. She was a little turned on by how firm he was to her but quickly shook it off. "I know you have a lot on your plate and if there's anything I can do to help I'm here but I gotta ask…why do you hate Jensen?"

"I didn't say that."

"No, you just show it and since he's joined the group you've been a little…moody."

Rick didn't say a word as he looked out into the prison yard. He stopped himself from yelling at her. Jolene stood there for a moment wondering why his attitude was mainly to her and Jensen. She turned around and started walking away.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have raised my voice to you." Rick rubbed the back of his neck trying to relax.

He was upset that Jensen was here, that he was thinking of Jolene in ways that he shouldn't, that his marriage was on the rocks even though Lori lied to him and told him that she still wants to keep trying with their marriage, that he was trying everything in his power to stay faithful and not be a cheater like Lori, upset that Shane was giving him hell and that over all he had to maintain his composure for Carl sake.

Jolene noticed the tension running through Rick's body. "If I'm doing something that's bothering you…"

"No. It's me, not you." Rick sighed.

"You should go eat. Get a drink of water or something." Jolene insisted.

"You coming?" Rick looked to her as she brushed past him.

"Nope, not hungry. I'll keep watch tonight."

"Daryl's said he's keeping watch tonight and second half of the shift belongs to Andrea."

"Well you tell Daryl he's relieved of his duty tonight."

Jolene looked out to the prison yard and saw Lori out and about. "Looks like queen bee is lookin for ya." Jolene informed Rick. "Good luck with her."

Rick didn't say a word as he stared at Jolene. He didn't want to leave her alone but he walked away to deal with Lori.

"Rick." Jolene called out to him as he was leaving. Rick turned and looked back to Jolene. "The pillows here suck, you should get a sheet and fold it a few times, use it as a neck pillow…should probably help your neck there."

"Thanks." Rick walked out.

An hour passed as Jolene was keeping watch in the guard tower and Daryl came up.

"Clementine wants to know when you're coming down."

"Tell her to get some sleep, I'm keeping watch tonight." Jolene glanced at Daryl.

"Not your call."

Jolene didn't say a word and looked out to yard. Daryl walked over and stood right next to her.

"I expect you to show me how to use your crossbow tomorrow. We've been putting that off to the side lately." Jolene quickly glanced at him.

"Fine by me."

A silence blew through them and Jolene started thinking about all the things she's taken for granted in life.

"Daryl…what's something you've been missing since all hell broke loose?"

"Eating out."

"Well now, I volunteer if you wanna eat out." Jolene joked.

Daryl turned his head and playfully glared at her and her dirty mind. "Merle and I would go to a ma an pa diner, get a big ass plate of bacon and eggs. Their sausages were out of this world."

"Merle huh?" Jolene repeated the man's name hoping he would introduce who the person was to him.

"My brother."

"Sorry." Jolene showed her sympathy.

"What do you miss?"

"Sex." She bluntly confessed. "Oh and a hot shower."

Daryl Chuckled and looked down to the prison yard. "Damn girl, can't argue with that."

"What I'd give for a fuck buddy. All the decent men left in this world are taken now."

"What do you mean?"

"Well Rick's a married man, Shane is a dick who's fuckin around, Glenn's with Maggie and Hershel could be my grandfather."

"What about you and Jensen? You two seem pretty close."

"We go way back but I've never really seen him in other ways than just a friend."

A silence grew upon them. Daryl was contemplating if he should make a move. Even though Jolene's heart was set on Rick she was thinking the exact same thing since she knew she didn't stand a chance with Rick.

Daryl looked at Jolene from the corner of his eye, checking out the curves of her body. "What's wrong with me?" He croaked.

"Uh…nothing's wrong with you." She turned her head to look at him.

"So why didn't you mention me."

"I uh…just assumed that you weren't interested…"

"What if I am? You ain't the only one who needs to get laid."

"I uh…I wouldn't oppose to that." Jolene stared into his eyes.

They both looked at each other wondering if this was really going to happen. The more Daryl stared at her the more dirty his thoughts became.

"Joe, you need to eat. It's not healthy going a day without." Hershel popped out of nowhere.

"Yes father." Jolene looked to Hershel with a smile then looked back to Daryl as Hershel left.

"Tomorrow, you, me and that crossbow. It's a date." Jolene walked out.

* * *

**Aw, Rick is jealous. How cute! So are Jolene and Daryl really...friends with benefits now? How will that even work? I don't think Rick and Jensen would like that very much.**


	9. Opening Up

**Opening Up**

"Hey Clem." Jolene walked into her cell after Hershel made sure she ate something.

"I'll show you how to make it tomorrow." Carl's voice echoed through the walkie talkie that Clementine was holding.

"Rick let me borrow his walkie talkie to talk to Carl and Sophia when we're not together." Clementine quickly explained to Jolene as she got up and hugged her then went back to talking to Carl.

Jolene smiled, grabbed her hair brush and let down her hair to brush it.

"I'll be right back; I'm going to get some water." Clementine looked to Jolene as she put down the walkie talkie and excused herself.

"I'm gonna get ready for bed now." Carl's voice sounded through the walkie talkie.

Jolene picked it up and pushed the button. "She left the room. I'll let her know. You have a good night Carl."

"I'll inform Carl when he comes back in the cell." Ricks voice caught Jolene by surprise.

"Okay, you have a good night Rick."

"Jolene?"

Jolene hesitated for a moment. "Yes Rick."

He hesitated as well. He didn't know what to tell her but he wanted to hear her voice.

"Nothing… good night Jolene."

"Rick?" She quickly responded before he turned off the walkie talkie.

"Yeah."

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For bringing Clementine and I here. I don't think I ever thanked you."

Rick's heart warmed up hearing her say those words. Her voice was driving him crazy, he wanted to go to her cell and talk to her in person, to see her but he had to spend time with Carl since Lori was asleep because when Lori is around he's limited to what he can do and say with Carl. "There's no need to thank me."

"Yeah there is. I could've been dead already. You don't get the respect you deserve. Thank you."

Rick hesitated again and Carl walked back into the cell. "No problem. Good night."

"Good night." Jolene slowly turned off the walkie talkie.

_*******Jolene's Dream/Flashback to her past*******_

_"New breaks and spark plugs, you're set to go sir." Jolene wiped her grimy hands on a bar towel._

_"Thanks. I appreciate you guys takin in my car last minute. I bet you guys are anxious to go home and count down the New Year. How much do I owe ya?" The well dressed man with the 2012 Bentley pulled out his wallet._

_"It's the life of a mechanic. My man over there will take care of ya." Jolene pointed the customer to the front where her boss stood to pay._

_"Joe. You're good!" Eric, her boss winked to her letting her know she's set to go home._

_"See ya tomorrow!" She briefly waved her hand to Eric as she pulled out her car keys and headed out._

_Jolene opened her car door slid the key into the ignition turned it on and drove home to her husband Justin. It was New Years Eve as she was driving down the road listening to her favorite radio station and she glanced at the car clock. Eight Fifteen. Her anxiety rose as she was planning out her words carefully making sure her excuse of why she was late didn't tick off Justin. They were supposed to be at a New Year's party at Eight Thirty and she knew Justin would start yelling at her again, this time for being late for the party. She just wanted one night where she goes home and doesn't have to worry about Justin screaming at her and laying his hand over her. She was tired of covering up the bruises he would leave._

_She pulled up to the drive way and turned off the car. She swallowed the knot in her throat, took a deep breath filled with anxiety and opened the car door… _

_*******End*****Flash*****Back*****Dream*******_

Jolene quickly sat up on her bed, panting in cold sweat. Her body had woke her up before she could finish the dream. She didn't want to relive that awful night again. She got out of bed, put her boots on and walked out of the prison and into the yard for fresh air. It was still dark outside but dawn was near.

Jolene looked up at the guard tower and saw someone's figure. She decided to keep Andrea company on her shift.

"Andrea." Jolene walked in.

Rick turned around and Jolene was caught off guard to see Rick standing before her.

"Oh, I thought you said this was Andrea's shift." She took a step closer to him.

"She wasn't feeling too well."

"Damn, don't you ever get any sleep? You're like superman."

Rick smirked as he put down his shot gun.

"Do you mind if I stay with you for awhile. I don't really feel like being alone right now."

"I would love the company." Rick rubbed the back of his neck, still hurting from all the stress building up each day.

Jolene noticed his neck problem and wanted to help him out with that. "Let me help." She positioned herself behind Rick.

Rick stiffed up and wondered what she was up to. Her hands gently touched the back of his neck and slowly pressed her fingers down. Rick slightly moaned from the sensation but quickly shut himself up, holding it in.

"Relax." Jolene whispered.

Rick inhaled and started relaxing his body. Her touch sent shivers down his spine and he was trying to control himself from doing what he really wanted to do to her.

Jolene slowly moved her hands down to his shoulders. Rick clenched his jaw, holding in the moans of relaxation. He was enjoying it a little too much that he felt himself getting harder by the second. She had the unique skill of finding the right spot and putting just the right amount of pressure to relax his muscles. Not even Lori could make him feel the way he felt now when she would give him massages in the past.

Jolene smiled, she knew he was enjoying it. She loved the way he felt, her hands wanted to go lower but to touch more would be inappropriate, she couldn't do that to a married man.

They stood there for a few minutes in silence as Jolene was working her magic on him.

"I was stabbed." She confessed.

Rick snapped out of his relaxation, pulled away from the massage and turned to her. "What?"

"You asked how I got the scar on my shoulder…I was stabbed." Jolene sighed. "I was sixteen and my mom was dating some loser guy. They ran out of liquor and smokes one night so my mom grabbed her keys and said she'll be back. She left me alone with her boyfriend." Jolene paused; she started feeling a knot in her throat from the memory of that night.

"He was drunk and barged through my bedroom door…Domino, my dog started barking at him and he started yelling at him to shut up and kicked him. I got out of my bed and tried kickin him outta my room. He pulled out his pocket knife and threatened to kill Domino if he didn't stop barking. I was yellin and screamin for help but I knew help was never going to come. He stabbed Domino…I tried to stop it but got caught in the crossfire and he stabbed my shoulder. He left the knife in, pushed me down and started moving the knife around in my skin, making the wound deeper like he was enjoying it…and that wasn't even the worst part he did to me."

Rick was speechless, heartbroken on what she had to endure.

"With no insurance and no help I had to stitch it up myself. One of the many memories I wish I could forget."

"I'm…I'm sorry." Rick sympathized.

"It was a long time ago. As crazy as it sounds living in this prison…for me, its paradise compared to how I used to live." She thought it was pretty ironic. She's spent a great amount of time avoiding prison and now she's living in one.

**-Evening time – The woods-**

Jolene was in the back seat of Daryl's motorcycle and he had just pulled up to an abandoned shack. Jolene let go of Daryl's fit waist and looked around.

"Why did we stop here?"

"Why you ask questions?" It was Daryl's excuse to be alone with Jolene in the shack but didn't want to admit it.

Daryl walked into the shack to make sure it was walker free and Jolene followed. A dusty Polaroid camera caught her attention in the corner of the room and she walked over to pick it up from the floor. She blew on it to dust off the spider webs and checked to see if there was any film. She smiled when she saw that it was full of film.

"What'd you got there?" Daryl walked over to her.

"I'm gonna give it to Clementine." She showed it to Daryl then walked out of the shack to the motorcycle to put it in the bag.

Jolene heard groaning and from a short distance she saw a walker hanging by his neck from a tree. She walked over to it and saw a note pinned to the tree that the walker was hanging from and Daryl followed behind her.

"Got bit, fever hit, world gone to shit, might as well quit." Jolene mumbled the words on the note. She sighed, shaking her head and dropped the paper.

"What it say?" Daryl caught up to her.

"Suicide note." She walked back to the shack.

Daryl shook it off and handed the crossbow to Jolene.

"Nice." She smiled. She loved the feel of it and Daryl loved how she looked with it.

Jolene got in aiming position and Daryl walked up behind her to give her a hand.

"Pull it back." Daryl's deep voice pierced her ears making the hair on her arms stand up.

Daryl wrapped his arms around her putting her in the right position. Jolene cleared her throat out of nervousness, trying to stay calm.

"You see that black spot on the tree right there. Aim at that." His voice hit the back of her neck.

Jolene stared hard at the black spot and fired. Close but missed. Daryl continued to coach her a while longer until she started getting it right.

She fired and got the black hole right in the middle. Daryl walked over to the tree, pulled out the arrows and walked back over to her. She aimed the crossbow again but her eyes got a glance at a spider crawling on her lower leg. If there is one thing in the world she hated more than walkers it was spiders.

"Oh shit!" Jolene laid the crossbow down and shook her right leg to get rid of the spider.

Daryl chuckled at her and as she bent down her tank top and over shirt lifted, showing the tattoo on her lower back. Daryl quickly noticed it and just like that he had to have her. Tattoos were his weakness on a woman. He tried to get a better look at it but Jolene stood up straight, holding the crossbow and the tattoo disappeared.

She aimed at another tree to practice again but Daryl got right behind her and with his left hand he slowly picked up her shirt and doodled little circles with his thumb on her tattoo and his right hand took the crossbow out of her hands and laid it on the floor. With his left hand still touching her tattoo his right hand wrapped around her waist, touching her stomach, with his chest pressed up against her back.

She felt Goosebumps form from his touch as his face buried down in her neck. His hand removed itself from her tattoo, slid her hair to the side and roughly bit down on the back of her neck. A moan of pleasure escaped Jolene's mouth as her right hand reached over to the back of Daryl's neck and ran through his hair.

"You gonna show me that tattoo?" He mumbled through her neck, still biting down and doing little circles with the tip of his wet tongue.

Jolene turned her head all the way to the right and Daryl's lips crashed on to hers. The kiss was hard, wet and it made it even better when his left hand started massaging her breast.

Jolene released herself from his grip, turned to face him and pulled his shirt, dragging him in the shack. Daryl kicked the door closed, quickly picked Jolene up and sat her on top of a little wooden table by the window. He pulled down her pony tail and tangled his hands through her hair as his lips burned down on her neck.

She could feel his hard dick wanting to explode out of his pants between her legs as his body pressed hard against hers.

Daryl quickly unbuttoned her shirt and took it off along with her tank top and quickly unhooked her bra. He growled with pleasure as he stared at her bare breasts and hard nipples. His tongue circled around her left nipple with his hand massaging her right breast. He started to roughly suck on her nipple and Jolene's heart started beating faster, her breathing changed, as if she had just jumped into a freezing lake on a fall evening.

"I need to see it." Daryl eagerly lifted Jolene off the table, put her down and turned her around. Jolene rested her hands on the table and faced the window.

He got a good look at her tattoo and was more turned on than ever. He started leaving trails of kisses on her back and slowly made his way down. His hot tongue tasted every inch of her tattoo as his hands were exploring her thighs. He loved hearing the soft moans of pleasure from Jolene when his hands moved up to her ass and started squeezing. She felt herself running out of patience, she was getting wetter by the second and she had to have him inside her.

She turned around and Daryl stood back up. Both them stared into each other's eyes, hungry for each other. She yanked off his shirt and her teeth bit down on the right side of his neck as Daryl's hand were finding their way into her pants. After he unbuttoned and unzipped her pants, his hand slid in and started massaging her over her underwear. He felt how wet she was getting through her underwear and he wanted to feel her wetness on his throbbing hard dick.

***Bang Bang Bang***

Daryl and Jolene quickly looked out the window and saw two walkers trying to get in.

Jolene groaned as she laid her head on his chest. "Time to go."

* * *

**Whoa! I think it's a good thing the walkers showed before they proceeded with their primal instincts. Jolene probably wasn't thinking straight but she probably would have regretted it. Her heart seems to be with Rick from what it looks like.**


	10. Before the Truth Ignites

**Before the Truth Ignites**

Glenn and Shane opened the gate for Daryl and Jolene. Jolene let go of Daryl's waist as Daryl was getting off the motorcycle and Rick quickly knew something had happened.

"Run into any trouble?" Rick looked back and forth to Daryl and Jolene.

"Nothin we can't handle." Daryl picked up his crossbow.

"What happened to your pony tail?" Rick looked to Jolene noticing that her hair was now down and not up like it was before she left. He also noticed that some of the buttons on her shirt were unbuttoned and that one of buttons were on the wrong slit.

"It ripped." Jolene quickly avoided any more questions and made her way into the prison to check on Clementine. She has no obligation to Rick yet she couldn't look him in the eyes, she felt like she cheated on him for some odd reason.

"Hey Clem." Jolene walked into the cafeteria to Carol, Sophia and Clementine.

"Joe!" Clementine ran and tackled her down with a hug.

"I got you something." Jolene pulled out the Polaroid camera from behind her.

"A camera? We don't have anywhere to print them." Clementine grabbed the camera.

"Push that button there and the picture comes out. Simple as that."

"Really?" Clementine's eyes widen with amazement.

"Uh huh. I figured you can keep busy by taking pictures of what you like."

"Thank you Joe!" Clementine hugged her once more then ran over to Sophia.

"I'm glad you guys came back." Carol looked to Jolene. "It scares me every time Daryl goes out these gates."

"Daryl's a big boy; he knows how to handle himself." She sat down next to Carol.

"I know but I can't imagine what I'd do without him." Carol looked down to the floor. She had fallen hard for Daryl but was afraid to show it.

Jolene noticed something in Carol, the same look she has when she thinks of Rick. "You and Daryl are real close huh?"

"He's been there for Sophia and me more than my own husband was. He's nothing like his brother; he has a heart under the rough patch. Ed…he would never let me out of his sight. I lived in fear and always worried for Sophia's safety. Daryl is more of a father to her than her own daddy."

"Justin, my husband started off amazing then started to verbally abuse me." Jolene confessed. "When we found out that I couldn't get pregnant everything changed for the worse. He let me know how upset he was about not having a family every night. Forced to give it up and cover the bruises and cuts every morning. Had to play house wife with a smile like if nothing happened when I was dying inside."

"Now we're both free from the devil beside us." Carol laid her hand on Jolene's and gave it a light squeeze. "We both found our way to this group for a reason, to give us hope. Rick has kept us alive this far and Daryl is the angel I need to keep my spirit alive." Carol sighed with Daryl clouding her mind.

"Yeah." Jolene felt disgusted with herself. "Ima go get some water." Jolene got up and walked out of the cafeteria. She felt ashamed of what almost happened with Daryl. How could she be so blind to not see how Carol felt about him?

**-That Night-**

Jolene found Daryl sitting on the stairs in the cell block, holding on to his crossbow.

"Daryl, can we talk?" She sat down next to him on the step.

"What about?"

Rick was on his way to the cell block Daryl and Jolene were in but stopped before they could see him when he heard Jolene saying if they could talk.

"I'm just curious to where you and Carol stand."

"What do you mean?" He tilted his head in confusion.

"I don't think you and I should go any further. I was talking to Carol and she seems to be taken by you. She didn't say it but I know how she feels about you. Last thing I want is to cause trouble to anyone. I don't want her to be heartbroken. She sees you as her hero and so does Sophia. You give her hope."

Daryl stared at Jolene as it finally sunk in. He knew but it didn't come to full realization until now.

"If she was to find out something was going on between us, her hope will go down in flames. She needs you and you need to be there for her."

"I understand."

"Well Ima go check on Clementine." Jolene's hand gripped his shoulder to stand up and left the cell block.

Rick had the confirmation he needed. He was angry but calmed himself down with that fact that at least they won't be getting any closer. He didn't want anyone to put their hands on her.

**-Dawn-**

"Hey, you need help?" Jolene walked over to the crops where Rick was getting an early start on farming.

"I pretty much got it covered. What are you doing awake so early?"

"I could ask you the same thing?"

"Getting an early start before the sun drives me crazy."

"Well let me help." Jolene insisted.

For a moment they didn't say a word as they were checking the pigs and crops and Jolene hated the silence.

"I'm gonna help Carol and Andrea out with the laundry later. Kinda noticed Lori stopped doing your laundry; if you want I'll wash them for you."

"I don't know. I don't feel right having you wash my clothes. It's not your responsibility."

"I'll be more than happy to do you." Jolene quickly bit her tongue in realization of what she just uttered. "To do your clothes, wash your clothes." She quickly corrected herself.

Rick smirked, chuckling under his breath. "Oh God, I think I'm falling in love with you." He muttered as he took a few steps away from her to continue checking the tomatoes but wasn't intended for Jolene to hear, it just slipped out of his mouth.

Jolene vaguely heard those words and her heart raced as she gulped down her anxiety. She didn't know if she should respond to what he said.

"This is what happens when I'm awake at this hour with no coffee, my words come out all wrong." She tried hard not to blush but it was out of her control.

Jolene grabbed the pig food and went over to feed the pigs. She leaned forward as she fed them and her shirt slowly rose up, showing half of her tattoo. Rick turned to her to say something and quickly noticed the tattoo again. He desperately wanted to go up behind her, pull up the shirt and get a good look at it. He stood there and ran his hand down his mouth and jaw, trying to control himself and Jolene noticed him looking at her from the corner of her eye. She loved the attention from him.

"I know you were starin back at the hunting store." She confessed, still feeding the pigs.

"What?"

"When I was changing." She put down the food and turned to him. "You don't need to sneak, you could just ask to look at it…you know, my tattoo."

"I uh…" Rick gulped. He started to sweat and it was not because of the summer heat.

Jolene chuckled at his awkwardness. "I know you were trying to look at it right now."

"I, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have stared. I…" He scratched the back of his head, trying to quickly think of something to say. "I'm, I'm sorry."

"Good morning." Clementine walked up to Jolene and Rick.

"Good morning. What are you doing awake so early sweetheart?" Jolene noticed the camera in her hand.

"I wanted to take a picture of the sunrise. Can I take a picture of you guys too?"

"Sure." Rick and Jolene accepted.

"Smile and say cheese." Clementine grinned as she aimed to take the picture.

Rick wrapped his left arm around Jolene and gripped on to her upper arm, bringing her closer to him. They both smiled and said cheese and Clementine snapped the picture. Rick let his arm linger on her a second longer and finally let go.

"I like it." Clementine smiled as she looked at the picture slide out of the camera.

"Nice." Jolene glanced at it. "I'll be back, gonna go get some water." She walked away.

"Here you go Rick." Clementine handed the picture to him.

"Aren't you going to keep it?"

"I can always take more. I want everyone to have pictures."

Rick took the picture and stared at it as Clementine walked away. He thought that Jolene looked absolutely radiant in the picture.

**-After Breakfast-**

"Hey Rick. You wanna go change into different clothes so I could wash those." Jolene and Carol walked up to Rick.

Rick was going to tell her that it was okay and that she shouldn't bother doing things for him but he knew Jolene would counter him so he decided to just agree. "Alright."

Jolene gave Rick a minute then walked over to his cell to collect his clothes.

"You decent?" Jolene stood by the side of his cell, not wanting to walk in on him in case he was dressing.

"You could come in."

Jolene held out her hands and Rick handed her his clothes. "You don't have to."

"Someone has to." Jolene smirked, looking down to his zipper that was down.

Rick noticed where Jolene's eyes were looking. He looked down and quickly zipped up his zipper, feeling a little embarrassed. Jolene couldn't help but stare at his package. She really wanted to know what type of gun the officer was packing underneath those pants.

"That will be me." Lori brushed by Jolene, bumping her shoulder and yanked the clothes out of her hands. "Why don't you go play house somewhere else."

Rick looked down to the floor, massaging his temples from stress building. He knew that Jolene would say something that will anger Lori and the last thing he wanted was for them two to argue.

Jolene had a million words she wanted to blurt out to Lori but kept her mouth shut for Rick and walked out, grinding her teeth.

"Now you're going to be my wife and do my laundry?" Rick fumed.

"I've always been your wife Rick. Why are you going to have her do my job?"

"Because you're not doing your job, you're out dictating what our son can do and "bonding" with Shane." Rick grabbed his clothes from Lori's hand and the photo of him and Jolene peaked its way out of his pants pocket. Lori quickly pulled it out to see what it was.

"I want you to stop being around her." Lori stared at the picture with hatred in her eyes.

"Sure thing. I will when you stop screwing around with Shane." Rick took the picture back. "How stupid do you think I am! Unlike you I'm still faithful to you Lori. Nothing is going on with Jolene like you think it is. You say you want to work things out, you want to keep trying, well all I see is you trying to hide what you're doing with Shane." Rick turned around and started walking away.

"Where are you going!" Lori yelled out.

"I'm going to keep us alive like I've been doing and spend time with my son."

_*******Flash Back to Jolene's Past*******_

_"You're late." Justin's voice carried through the house as Jolene walked through the front door._

_She walked to the kitchen where she heard his voice._

_"A customer needed his car fixed last minute. Eric wouldn't let me go home until the job was done. I tried to hurry. I'll just take a quick shower and put my hair up; I'll be ready in ten minutes, promise." She timidly stood by the entrance of the kitchen._

_"We were supposed to leave a half hour ago. I told my boss I would be there at Eight Thirty. How am I supposed to get that promotion if I tell my boss one thing and I don't follow through Jolene!" Justin marched to her._

_"I'm sorry." She winced back ready for him to strike her._

_"Get out of my face." He turned his back to her. Jolene jogged upstairs and quickly got ready._

_She quickly walked down stairs to the living room as she double checked her wallet one last time to make sure she had her license since she knew Justin would be drinking at the party and she would need to be the designated driver. _

_*******End*****Flash*****Back*******_

"Joe, hey Joe." Jensen's deep husky voice dragged Jolene out her own world as he waved his hand in front of her face to grab her attention.

"Hey." Jolene got up from her cell bed.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"There's one thing left in the world I know that works on you when you're stressed." Jensen sat down on her bed. "Lay down." He grabbed Jolene's hand and brought her closer to him.

"Jensen…"

"Lay down."

Jolene gave in, laid down and rested her head on his lap.

"You feel better?" Jensen started petting her hair.

"You always know how to make me feel better." She started to relax.

"Well this has to work since I can't buy you chocolate."

Jolene smiled as his strong hands brushed through her hair. She was relaxed enough to start falling asleep. Jensen stared down at her, loving the feel of her hair and how beautiful she looked to him right now. He tried controlling his thoughts about her so he wouldn't get horny. He didn't want to get a boner and make it obvious on how he's feeling but his eyes couldn't stop looking at her. The curves on her body drove him insane.

"Hey Jensen." Glenn walked in on them. "You wanna head out with us on a run tomorrow?"

"You know it." Jensen replied.

"Hey I want to go too." Jolene quickly sat up.

"I don't know, you need to talk to Rick." Glenn informed.

"Alright."

"Jolene." Jensen grabbed on to her hand as she was about to walk away. "Don't. You need to stay here where you're safe."

"I think we both know how I feel about being behind bars for an extended period of time." Jolene released her hand from his grip and walked out.

"Hey Rick?" Jolene walked up to Rick who was looking at a map that was laid out on the hood of a car. "Why was I not included on the run?"

"I think Jensen, Daryl, Glenn and myself can handle it."

"Yeah…I'm going."

"Jolene…"

"Where are we headed?" Jolene interrupted as she looked down at the map.

"Macon."

Jolene's eyes stared deathly at the map, flashbacks appearing with every blink.

"Jolene." Rick tried snapping her out of her thoughts.

"What about the next town. Macon is probably all scavenged up."

"We've already hit all these other towns, we haven't tried Macon." He pointed out.

Jolene inhaled and exhaled slowly. She never wanted to go back to that place but decided to go with them. She didn't want her past holding her back anymore.

"You don't have to go." Rick noticed her change in reaction.

"No, I…I want to go." She leaned her back on the car, looking out to the sunset.

"Something wrong with Macon?"

"No, not at all." She lied through her teeth.

Rick leaned back on the car next to Jolene, relaxing in the summer air as he rubbed the back of his neck, trying to ease himself from the stress and all Jolene wanted to do was help him.

"I would massage you again but queen bee might come out and throw a temper tantrum. If you want me to, you know where I sleep." Jolene slowly walked away.

**-That Night-**

"I didn't see him there I swear. I screamed like a little girl who saw a huge spider." Jolene finished telling Carl a moment of her past over the walkie talkie.

Rick walked up to Jolene's cell after he knew for sure Lori was asleep and heard Jolene talking to Carl over the walkie talkie.

"That's hilarious." Carl laughed.

"Not for me." Jolene chuckled.

Rick moved the sheet that was hanging on the entrance to her cell that gave Jolene her privacy and walked in.

"Hey man, I think you just got busted." Jolene smiled and handed the walkie talkie over to Rick.

He pushed the button on the walkie talkie and looked at Jolene. "I thought you were asleep."

"It's Joe's fault." Carl laughed.

"Good night Carl." Rick pushed the button again.

"Good night dad." Carl then turned off his walkie talkie.

"I'm sorry. I…"

"It's okay." Rick interrupted Jolene.

"Carl wanted to read me his comic and then we ended up telling some real funny stories. I just finished telling him the most embarrassing moment of my life."

"What's the most embarrassing moment of your life?"

"Psh, like I'm going to tell you." She smiled.

Rick leaned his back to the wall, crossed his arms and stared at her. She looked so beautiful with her long wavy hair flowing down.

"Isn't Lori going to throw a fit if she sees you in here?"

"She's asleep."

Jolene knew why Rick was in her cell so she got up from her bed, walked up to him and gripped his right shoulder, dragging him to her bed. "Sit down."

"I'm sorry for bothering you." Rick sat down on the edge of the bed as Jolene jumped on the bed right behind him. "I just…oh." Rick quickly lost his train of thought as her hands touched deep into his neck.

She smiled knowing he was enjoying the massage. She bit her bottom lip trying to contain her impure thoughts. "Rick?"

"Yeah."

"Why do you call me Jolene?"

"That's your name isn't it?" He smirked.

"I mean everyone here calls me Joe and you're the only one who calls me by my full name."

"I love the sound of you name."

"What's there to love about it?"

"It's yours."

She felt herself turn red in the face and was glad that she was behind him so he wouldn't see her blushing.

"You mind if I unbutton a couple? You know, so I can do this better." Jolene's hands reached over to the buttons on his shirt.

"By all means." Rick felt himself get excited and his heart beat rising as she was slowly unbuttoning the top three buttons. Her chest lightly pressed against his back and he started heating up. It was getting to hot with all the thoughts of Jolene running wild on his mind. He wanted her to press her chest harder against him, his hands were jealous of his back for getting all the action. At this point he wanted her breasts in his hands, to feel them, massage them and taste them.

Her hands slipped through the top of his shirt and massaged his shoulders. His skin was smooth and she had to take a deep breath to calm herself down from the high of feeling his skin.

"Oh God, Jolene." Rick moaned as she was hitting the right spots. He tried to think of something else but he just got harder, making his pants tighter.

Her smile widened, she was enjoying their time alone together. Rick quickly got up but didn't turn to face her. He had to stop it there before he exploded and gave in to temptation.

"You okay?" Jolene got up from the bed, wondering why he suddenly stood up.

"Yeah, we should rest up for the run tomorrow." Rick walked towards the cell door, buttoning up his shirt. "Thank you." He walked out. He knew it looked rude but he didn't want her to see that during the massage he got hard enough for her to notice. He desperately needed a cold shower.

* * *

**Oh my gosh, could Jolene and Rick just get together already! They obviously really like each other! I think Jolene and Daryl are better off as friends. Why doesn't Jolene want to go to Macon? What happened there that's putting her on edge?**


	11. No More Hiding

**No More Hiding **

**-Morning-**

_*******Flashback to Jolene's Past*******_

_"That was more than ten minutes." Justin got off his phone and walked towards Jolene._

_"By only two minutes." She put her wallet in the back pocket of her jeans._

_"You're not wearing that top." Justin poked her chest. "Everyone is going to stare at you."_

_"I've worn this before and you never had a problem. It's a low cut shirt, no big deal." She defended herself._

_"My boss will be there and I don't want him to think I'm married to a slut. Go change."_

_"No. You and I obviously have two different definitions of slut. I'm not changing. There's nothing wrong with this shirt."_

_"Go upstairs and put something decent on." Justin pushed her to the wall._

_"That's it!" She finally stood up for herself. "I'm not going to take it anymore. You are a control freak with anger issues. I'm done, I can't do this anymore." She walked past him._

_"What is that supposed to mean?" Justin glared._

_Jolene gulped hard, extremely nervous of what he might do to her and turned to face him. "I...I want a divorce." _

**_*****End*****Flash*****Back*****_**

"Joe, where here." Jensen shook Jolene out of her thoughts.

Jolene looked out the window and saw nothing but memories in the town of Macon. She got out of the car and observed the place.

"Jensen and I will hit north, Jolene, Daryl and Glenn, you guys hit south. Meet back in three hours." Rick announced.

Everyone agreed and went on their way to scavenge for supplies.

As Daryl, Glenn and Jolene were heading towards a grocery store after their second hour of scavenging Jolene noticed keys still in the ignition on a Camery. Jolene opened the car door and turned the key. The car studdered for a second then roared with life.

"What are you doing?" Glenn walked over to her.

"You guys go on, something I gotta do."

"What are you talkin about?" Daryl questioned.

"I just…I used to live here and I need to check something out."

"Alright we'll go with…" Glenn insisted but was interrupted by Jolene.

"No, I need to do this on my own. I know the area and it seems to be pretty quiet, not too many walkers here. I know what I'm doing I just really need to do this on my own. I'll meet you guys back at the car in an hour." Jolene quickly closed the door before Daryl and Glenn got closer and drove off.

Daryl and Glenn watched as she disappeared and knew that Rick would be upset to know she went off alone.

**-Rick and Jensen-**

"So we started talking after that and the rest is history. She's been there for me and I've been there for her." Jensen explained to Rick how he met Jolene.

"You two ever…?" Rick glanced at Jensen as he was rummaging through drawers and desks for bullets in the police station.

"I wanted to tell her that I had feelings for her but she pretty much kept me in the friend zone. Then she got married to some asshole that didn't deserve her. I respected her marriage but I wanted her. Now that the world is over I finally got a chance with her."

Rick glared hard at Jensen. He knew how Jensen felt about Jolene and now he was clearly a threat to him. "What if she still "friend zones" you?"

"Better not, I need to get laid, and soon."

Rick clenched his jaw; his blood started boiling with anger. "Is that so?"

"What man doesn't need to get laid right about now? It's the reason why you're so tense all the time, ain't getting any from your wife."

Rick walked over to Jensen and didn't blink as he stared bitterly at him. "My personal life is no concern to you, and as for Jolene, leave her alone. She doesn't need someone chasing after her right now. Show some respect, keep it in your pants."

Jensen barely chuckled. "You know Rick, I know you don't like me and that the only reason you wanted me to come with you on this run was to get more information on me. It looks like you have a thing for her, but I know her better than you do. At the end of the day she'll be waking up next to me. I'm not saying it to be cocky I'm just speaking the truth. Eventually and it will happen pretty soon she'll realize that I have always been there for her and that I will continue to be there for her. She'll get the satisfaction of safety and protection that I can provide and I'll get the satisfaction of…well I think you know."

Rick took a good look at the threat right in front of him and made a fist. The thought of Jolene with this fool was something he wasn't going to let happen. "I don't think you get it so let me make it clear. If you make a move on Jolene, if you so even touch her…"

"You'll what?" Jensen interrupted. "You'll kill me? Go ahead. How do you think she'll see you if you kill her best friend…future lover? I'm not stupid Rick; I see how you look at her. You hate me because she's spending more time with me. Let's be realistic here, you got a son and a wife…you really think you got a shot with her?"

*Bang, Bang, Bang*

Banging on the front door of the police station broke them away from their tense argument. Rick and Jensen looked out the window and saw four walkers trying to get in. Rick opened the door and stabbed the closest walker and Jensen headed for the second closest. They worked together for a moment to rid of the walkers.

**-Jolene-**

_*******Flashback to Jolene's Past*******_

_Justin grabbed her wrist and Jolene jerked back._

_"Let go!"_

_"I'm gonna have to teach you a lesson for disobeying." He forcefully pulled her towards him._

_"Damn it Justin, let go of me!" She struggled to get out of his grip._

_Justin raised his right hand and struck her mouth. Her bottom lip cut open with the force of his punch. She tasted her own blood as he still had her in a hold. She head butted him and turned her back to him to run away but he quickly grabbed a handful of her hair and slammed her down to the floor._

_"You little bitch." He kicked her back as he stood over her. "I give you everything and this is how you repay me!" He violently kicked the left side of her face. "I took you away from the horrible life you were living and brought you into my world and you can't even do a simple command? You want a divorce? You don't understand, if I can't have you no one will."_

_She saw the opportunity and with her right foot she kicked him between the legs and crawled away from him as he crouched down in pain._

_She got up and ran to the kitchen with the sound of Justin's heavy steps behind her. _

**_*****End*****Flash*****Back*****_**

Jolene stood there in her old home recalling the memories of the night that changed her life. The atmosphere of the place has changed since the last time she was in the house. A new family had moved in, pictures of a happy family hanged on the walls but it seemed like the place was already raided because no food or anything of use was in sight.

She walked into the kitchen and stared at the floor, the memory of that night was clear as day.

_*******Flashback to Jolene's Past*******_

_"Justin please stop, please!" She pleaded as she pulled out a knife from the counter drawer._

_"What are you doing? Put the knife down." He slowly walked over to her._

_"Justin please don't do this, I love you, please." She begged with an unsteady voice and tears streaming down her face._

_"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm sorry baby. Please put down the knife and we'll talk this through, okay. Baby I love you, put it down." He tried to calm her down._

_Jolene opened her hand and the knife dropped to the floor. Justin quickly tackled her down and punched her face a couple of times then wrapped his hands tightly around her neck. _

**_*****End*****Flash*****Back*****_**

**-Rick and Jensen-**

After Rick and Jensen took care of the walkers by the entrance of the police station Rick searched the sheriff's office. Reports laid on the desk and he took a glance at them. Reports of the dead coming to life, raids in the city, murders and mass suicides.

He quickly glanced at the walls where the sheriff had posted wanted pictures of criminals and a map of the city as he walked out of the room. Two steps out of the room and Rick stopped in his tracks, deep in thought. He walked back into the room and took a look at one of the wanted pictures.

His eyes widened, heart started palpitating with emotions running wild. He felt uneasy and had more questions then there were probably answers for. He folded the paper and put it in his back pocket. He was stunned, befuddled, dismayed, angry, worried and concerned. His emotions were conflicted and he didn't know how to approach the situation at hand.

**-Third hour mark-Back at the car-**

"Where's Jolene?" Rick quickly noticed as he and Jensen headed back to the car after the third hour mark.

"She uh…" Glenn mumbled.

"She took off. Said she'll be back within the hour and that was an hour ago." Daryl stepped in front of Glenn.

"What do you mean she took off?" Rick raised his voice.

"I think I know where she might be. One of two places around here." Jensen interjected.

**-Jolene-**

Jolene drove to her job site where she used to work as a mechanic and picked the locks to the front door of the office. She heard a rustling in the bushes a few feet away from the doors. She stared at the bushes as she pulled out her knife from her back pocket and took a step forward.

A tired, hungry and skinny German shepherd made itself visible. Jolene let her guard down and stared at the dog. Both of them looked at each other without a blink. She disregarded the dog and walked in the shop. The bell above the door jingled as she closed the door behind her but the door did not shut all the way.

It looked as if a tornado hit the place. Broken objects, things scattered around with blood splattered on the walls and floors with bullet holes deep in the walls. She walked over to the front counter where she saw her bosses name tag and reached out to pick it up. Suddenly a walkers rotting hand took hold of her hand from behind the counter and stood up straight, making itself visible.

"Fuck." She accidently dropped her knife when the walker startled her.

The bell rang and Jolene looked behind her as she reached down to her holster for the gun but the German shepherd had pushed the door open, jumped over the counter and tackled down the walker. Jolene picked up her knife and jumped over the counter to finish the job. She stabbed the walker through its skull and the dog let go the walkers arm.

The dog and Jolene stared at each other once more then the dog walked around the office sniffing things out and Jolene walked away.

She opened the garage door where she spent most of her time working on cars and saw her boss Eric, dead in the flesh, standing in front of his open car.

**-Rick and the group-**

"Since she wasn't at her old house she has to be here." Jensen assured the group.

"That's the car she was drivin." Daryl pointed out.

"I'll go get her. Stay here." Rick ordered as he hopped out of the car and into the auto shop.

Daryl and Glenn noticed the hostility between Rick and Jensen and felt uncomfortable being in the same car with them. They knew something happened when they were alone together being that they were not like that before.

Rick walked in, the bell rang and the dog walked up to him. He was amazed to see a dog after so long without seeing one. Rick heard sobbing from the garage and followed the sound. He stood by the door as he saw Jolene with her back to him.

Jolene choked up, tears running down her face. Going to work was one of the only good things in her life; Eric would make her feel like she was someone and not a worthless being like Justin and the rest of society would make her feel. She stared at his dead cloudy eyes as he stumbled towards her. With her eyes blurry from the salty tears she raised her right hand up and stabbed him in the skull, dropping him to the floor as she fell with him. She softly cried to herself with her head down as she was on top of Eric's dead body. "I'm sorry." She whispered.

The dog walked over to Jolene and sat down next to her, letting out a small whimper as if the dog knew she was sad.

Rick didn't know if he should walk over to her or say something. He was utterly confused. Jolene slowly got up as she pulled the knife out of Eric's skull and tried to put her emotions back in order.

She went up to Eric's car; the only car in the garage and looked inside for anything useful. She pulled out a crowbar, a tomahawk and something new that she had never seen before, some sort machete arm strap with an ergonomic grip handle and hi-tech strap that wraps around your forearm for a secure feel.

"You were supposed to stay with Glenn and Daryl, not wonder off." Rick finally spoke.

Jolene quickly turned around, her heart skipping a beat to see Rick standing before her.

"Herd of walkers around the corner, we need to go." Daryl rushed in to inform Rick and Jolene then back out the garage door.

Rick glared at Jolene, not saying a word as Jolene grabbed the weapons and walked out the door.

Jolene looked down at the dog and did not want to care for the dog for emotional reasons but deep down she couldn't leave an animal starve to death.

"Come on." She hand motioned for the dog to get in the car. The dog jumped in, she closed the car door and Rick drove off, passing a red Chevy Cavalier.

Martinez sat back up in his seat as he was bent down to hide as they were driving past his car. He turned on his car and carefully followed them. He now has the information he need. Jolene was alive and he was determined to know where she and her group were staying.

* * *

**Oh crap! Martinez found Jolene! What exactly did Rick see on that paper? Jensen is a prick, don't you think?**


	12. Too Far

**Quick note:**

**I would love to give thanks to rocknrollprinces131 (Elana) for being my beta reader for this chapter. She's totally awesome and you should definitely check out her work.**

**Thanks for reading and enjoy!**

* * *

**Too Far**

Martinez parked his car away from the prison and ran as close as he could, hiding behind trees to remain concealed. He saw Jolene surrounded by other survivors and examined the set up they had there. Crops, animals and people. He saw how happy the Asian man was when a woman walked out of the prison, greeting him with a kiss, and how a little girl greeted Jolene with a huge hug that almost knocked her down.

Martinez found himself at a crossroad. He knew what had to be done. If The Governor found out that he knew Jolene's whereabouts and didn't say a word, it would be his life on the line as well. Except, he couldn't help but think how life would be on the inside of the penitentiary, to be free of The Governor at last.

"Maggie, Beth, Glenn and I are going out for some family bonding. We're going to pick berries and herbs that are growing around here. We won't go far; we have our knives and guns at hand." Hershel explained to Rick.

"How far are you going?"

"A few yards at most."

"You guys be careful. Andrea, stay in the guard tower and keep watch while they're out." Rick ordered.

"You got it." Andrea grappled her riffle and headed towards the guard tower.

Carl and Clementine took immediate notice to the German shepherd that followed Jolene.

"Can I pet it?" Carl asked before he laid his hand on the dog.

"Go for it, seems friendly enough."

Carl and Clementine ran their fingers through his fur, feeling the softness along with cracks of dried mud.

"Does he have a name?" Clementine asked.

Jolene stared at the dog, deciding between a few names. "Maybe Charlie?"

"Charlie." Carl smirked. "I like it. Can I take him around the prison?"

"Go right on ahead. You should feed him, too, he's pretty skinny." Jolene smiled as Carl and Clementine walked away with Charlie.

"Ima go check on Carol and Sophia." Daryl walked into the prison.

Jolene felt Rick's eyes on her as he stood a few feet behind her, but didn't turn to face him. She felt his vibe change and knew it was towards her, not knowing why and not about to attempt to find out right now, so she walked away, into the prison.

Rick stood there, his eyes burning through Jolene as she walked away. He hated the position he found himself in, and it needed to be dealt with soon.

**-Daryl and Carol-**

"I'm so glad you're back." Carol hugged Daryl.

"Ain't no run into town gonna stop me from comin back." He assured her.

"Sophia missed you." Carol smiled as she stared into Daryl's eyes.

Daryl stared back, looking at the woman before him, realizing how much she really cared for him. "Where is she?"

"She's asleep. Clementine and Sophia were playing all day, she's exhausted."

"Mind if I check up on her?"

"By all means. I'm gonna fetch us some water." Carol gently leaned forward and pecked him on the side of his lips with a smile, then walked away.

Daryl briefly chuckled as he stared at Carol walking away. He was caring for Carol and Sophia more and more with each day that passes.

"How cute." Jolene spoke as she stood behind Daryl.

"Shut up." Daryl blushed as he turned to face Jolene, having no idea how long she had been behind him.

"Oh snaps, did Daryl Dixon just blush?" Jolene joked. "I'm surprised you guys don't call each other by cute nick names."

"Psh. You talk to Rick yet?"

"No, why?"

"He seems pissed. Don't know what about."

"So many people here, why do I have to be the one to talk to him?"

"I think we both know why." Daryl walked past her, leaving Jolene confused.

_What did he mean by that? _Jolene thought to herself. She shrugged it off and headed back outside to tend to the crops.

**-Shane and Lori-**

"We could sneak out, you, me, and Carl. I can protect us. A prison is what Rick thinks is best for you and Carl? Really? We can do better. You and I both know we're meant to be together Lori."

"Shane…" Lori was falling for Shane hard, but felt bad for Rick. She didn't want to literally take Carl away from him, a boy shouldn't grow up without his father. "Don't think I haven't thought about it, but where else is safe? Carl is Rick's son and I just can't take him away…"

"What is Rick going to do? Hire a lawyer and take you to court for custody of Carl? He won't find us."

"Shane…"

"Just think about it." Shane walked out of her cell block, leaving Lori to think about his plan.

**-Jolene and Jensen-**

"Hey, Joe." Jensen walked up to Jolene as she was picking tomatoes.

"Jensen. How'd the run go with Rick today?"

"Great." He clenched his jaw, hating it when Jolene would mention _his_ name. "You worried me, should have stayed with Daryl and Glenn. I don't want you going out on anymore runs, I don't think you realize how dangerous it is to be alone."

"If Rick can't keep me in here, what makes you think you can?"

"I'm serious, Joe. I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you. We were fortunate enough to find each other again. I need to make sure you are safe at all times." He pulled a strand of hair away from her face and hid it behind her ear.

"I was fine; it was the closest I'll ever get to finding clarity."

"I know it wasn't easy for you." Jensen stared into her eyes with sympathy. "If you need to talk about it, I will always be here for you."

"I know. Thank you."

"I got you something." Jensen pulled out a gold heart necklace and held it out for her to see.

Jolene's lips curved north, forming a small smile.

"Found it on the run today, it made me think of you." He moved her hair to the side and gently wrapped it around her neck.

"It's beautiful." Jolene looked into Jensen's hazel eyes as she touched the gold heart by her chest.

"Doesn't come close compared to who's wearing it." He pulled her in for a hug.

Jolene took in his words and realized that he just complimented how she looked. She hoped that it was just a friendly compliment and nothing more.

He caressed the middle of her back as she wrapped her arms around his waist. He badly wanted to confess his feelings for her but knew it still wasn't the right time. Very soon, but not now.

**-Rick and Lori-**

Rick stared at Jolene and Jensen through the fence of the prison court yard. If he didn't do anything soon, the anger and frustration would consume his humanity, it would get the best of him, but at this point he didn't know what to do, he was simply a mess.

"Rick, we need to talk." Lori snuck up behind him.

"What now?" He scolded her.

"I'm getting pretty sick and tired that every time I see my husband he's looking at _her_." She positioned herself in front of him, getting his eyes off Jolene.

"Yeah? Well, I'm getting pretty sick and tired of you calling me your _husband_. Let's make it official, Lori, we both know you don't love me anymore, at least not how you used to. It's you and Shane now. You and I, this isn't a marriage anymore. I don't know what it is. So, unless it's regarding Carl, I don't care what it is you have to say. Probably best that you stay out of my way and I out of yours."

"It's over?" Lori's eyes popped out in sudden shock of his words.

"It's been over. Carl told me what he saw this morning when I left for the run."

The bombshell of Carl now knowing turned her skin pale.

"Yeah Lori, he knows. I was gone, your guards were down and didn't realize that Carl saw you and Shane doing God knows what this morning. I love you, Lori…" Saying that he loves Lori was foreign to him at this point, it didn't feel right. He now knew that the love he had for her was long gone. "I _loved_ you. I don't need this crap. You're just a tenant living in my apartments now." Rick walked away with anger boiling in his blood. He loved Lori but not who she had become. Even if she had stopped her relationship with Shane, it would never be the same again. He wouldn't love her the way he used to. Betrayal and resentment were the only things he felt now whenever she's near.

**-After Dinner-**

"Hopefully, on our next run, I'll find better books for us to read." Jolene mentioned to Clementine as they were both sitting on the bed, their legs crossed. Jolene was braiding Clementine's hair so it wouldn't get messy when she went to bed.

"I hope so, I can't read the other books here." Clementine explained.

"Got a moment?" Rick walked up to her cell door and moved the sheet out of the way.

Jolene stared at Rick for a few seconds before responding. "Yeah."

"Clementine, Carol is going to read a bedtime story to Sophia, why don't you join them?" Rick insisted as his eyes never left Jolene's.

"Okay." Clementine got up and walked out of the cell.

Jolene rose from the bed and stood three inches away from the wall. "What's wrong?" She gulped.

Rick glared at her for a second, then took a few steps closer and looked down at her gold heart necklace around her neck. He was angry, hurt and every emotion that a person could possible feel. They were there, running ragged and messing with his mind, unable to make a clear judgment.

"Jolene." He looked back into her eyes. "That's a beautiful name… were you ever going to tell me your first name?"

Anxiety filled her body as she stared shaking in fear. She bent her head down and closed her eyes. Jolene knew where this was headed, why Rick was acting the way he was, but didn't know how he found out. Considering that he's an officer, this was not going to end well.

"Lauren…" He took a step closer. "Jolene…" Another step. "Glenanne." Rick pushed her up against the wall with his left hand and with his right hand he pulled out the paper from his back pocket, opened it, and shoved it in her face.

Jolene stared at the paper with her picture and information. "Rick… I can explain."

"Multiple felonies and first degree murder. I'd really love to hear your sorry excuse."

"Rick…" She stared into his eyes. The soft and honest eyes she started falling in love with were now filled with cold judgment, and she couldn't handle it, not from Rick.

"I don't even know who you are, so what makes you think I'll believe your excuse? I trusted you and that was my mistake. I trusted you around _MY_ son." He raised his voice.

"Rick…" Jolene whispered.

He released the hold he had on her and took a few steps back as his hand slid down his face.

A blurry Rick was all she could see as tears ran down her cheeks. "I…"

"Rick, we need you. A small herd of walkers are pushing the north side of the fence down." Hershel quickly moved the sheet out of the way to inform Rick, then quickly left.

Rick stared dead into Jolene's eyes for a moment, then turned his back to her and left.

Jolene started sobbing hysterically as he left, falling to her knees. She could handle the world pointing fingers and accusing her of the worst thing possible, but Rick was another story. She couldn't handle Rick treating her like the rest of the world did.

As she somberly sat on the cold floor, she pulled out her hunting knife and held out her wrist after she vowed to herself in the past that she would never do it again, and fell into her old habits. She couldn't take the forlorn heartbreak anymore.

**-Beth and Maggie-**

"I carved our names in the wood to hang outside our cells. You think Joe would like hers?" Beth showed Maggie.

"I can't see why not." Maggie smiled.

"I'm gonna give it to her now." Beth got up from her bed.

"She might be asleep already. Plus, Glenn told us to stay in our cells until they clear out the walkers outside."

"I'll be fine. Her cell isn't far. If she's asleep, I'll wait till tomorrow." Beth assured Maggie, then walked out of her cell and towards Jolene's.

Beth heard Joe weeping as she walked up to her cell. "Joe." She slightly moved the sheet out of the way. Beth took a peek inside and dropped Joe's carving to the floor with her heart pounding 90 miles per hour.

* * *

**So now Martinez knows where Jolene is staying so will he tell The Governor or have a change of heart?  
Jolene a murderer? What? That can't be right? Why was her motive? Will Rick let her explain?  
What was Jolene doing in her cell that had Beth in shock? 0_0**


	13. Acceptance

**I would love to give thanks to rocknrollprinces131 for being my beta reader for this chapter. She's totally awesome and a talented writer, if you haven't yet, you should check out her work.**

**So we found out that Jolene was a wanted murderer and Rick found out. Will she be able to explain, get banned from the group or do Rick a favor and leave? Read on to find out. Hope you enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

**Acceptance**

"Joe!" Beth rushed to Jolene.

"Don't tell anyone." Jolene wept as she held on tight to her bloody wrist.

Beth kicked her hunting knife that laid on the floor and bent down to her aid. "Joe, you can't do this." She pulled down the sheet that rested on the bed and wrapped it around her left wrist. "I have to have my dad look at it, make sure you don't need stitches."

"No." Jolene sniffed. "It's not too deep. Please, you can't tell anyone, _please_." She begged, staring into Beth's eyes. "I know how to take care of it. I just need alcohol to disinfect it. There's a small bottle of vodka in my backpack…please."

Beth reached over, picking up the knife and putting it in her back pocket for safe keeping.

"I've been where you're at. I've slit my wrist, too." Beth dug into Jolene's backpack and pulled out the small bottle of vodka. "Wanted to kill myself and even tried to convince Maggie to do it with me. I just didn't want to live anymore and didn't want to be alone. Except we all got jobs to do, that's what Daddy says. We need to stay strong, even though it's tough." Beth poured vodka on Jolene's wrist.

Jolene flinched as she felt the sting of alcohol pierce through the open cuts.

"You're not alone anymore. You got us." Beth wiped down Jolene's wrist with a cleaner part of the sheet. "I'll wash your sheet tomorrow." She got up on both feet and looked around for any sharp objects. "I'll be right back. I'm gonna tell Maggie I'm staying with you tonight."

"You don't need to, I'll be fine. I just had a moment of weakness." Jolene struggled to rise up.

She had a moment of weakness, back to old habits, stemming from when her self esteem was at an all time low from being beaten down by the world. Jolene knew it was imprudent, unwise, and even a bit selfish, now knowing that it wasn't going to accomplish anything.

Beth helped Jolene up and sat her down on the bed. "Lay down. I'll be right back."

**-Daryl and Carol-**

"Is everything under control?" Carol walked towards Daryl, who was standing by her cell door.

"Walkers almost took the fence down, but Rick's quick thinkin' took care of it."

"Thank goodness."

"Just came to check up on ya. Night." Daryl turned his back to her and started walking away.

"Daryl."

"Mmhum." He looked back at her.

"I don't want to be alone tonight. Sophia is sleeping in the next cell over with Clementine. You think you could sleep in here with me?"

Daryl thought about it for a second. _What harm could there be_? He walked over to her bed with Carol by his side and the two of them laid down. A small groan of relaxation escaped his mouth. Carol turned her back to him, grabbed his hand, and wrapped his arm around her.

Daryl was surprised that she was so forward with the sleeping arrangements, but didn't argue with it. He started to like the idea of sleeping with a woman with no intentions besides sleeping, and settled in, burying his face in the back of her neck, which Carol absolutely loved. She felt his warm, steady breath tickling the back of her neck. It made her feel safe, as if nothing else in the world existed. They both drifted out to space, with Daryl spooning Carol.

**-Jolene-**

Jolene got up from her sleep and looked over to see Beth lying right next to her, holding her hand. They had both fallen asleep as they were having a heart to heart talk. Jolene warmly smiled as she gently released Beth's grip around her hand. As she got on her feet and looked down at Beth, she realized that she indeed had a friend in her, but it wasn't enough. In Rick's eyes, she was a stranger again, a stranger this time he wouldn't trust. She couldn't take another confrontation with him. Shane and Lori both wanted her gone, so she was going to grant it.

Jolene gently pulled out her hunting knife from Beth's back pocket, trying not to wake her, and began to pack her belongings in her backpack. She grabbed the pencil that was on top of Clementine's notebook that she left in her cell, pulled out a piece of paper and jotted down her last thought.

_"Can't redeem what I did so I will suffer alone._

_Take care of Clementine. I'm sorry."_

Jolene left the note next to Beth and quietly slipped away. She made her way into the cafeteria for a water bottle before she left, packed two of them in her backpack, then took a quick look inside Hershel's medical bag for a bandage.

"Where are you going?" Lori walked in the cafeteria for a water bottle as well. She noticed the backpack hanging from Jolene's shoulder and wanted to know what she was up to.

"What's it to you?" Jolene didn't bother turning to face her as she wrapped her wrist with a white bandage she found deep inside the medical bag.

Lori glared callously at Jolene, as if she was the devil. "Bitch." She mumbled under her breath, reaching for a water bottle that laid on top of the cafeteria lunch table.

"I'm not deaf, I can hear your dirty mouth." Jolene turned to face her.

"Okay, you're a bitch. You walk in here thinking you are one of us and you break my marriage apart."

"Oh yeah, _I'm_ the one that broke your marriage apart because Rick and I are _madly_ in love with each other." Jolene sarcastically smirked. "You broke your marriage by slutting around with Shane. You have clearly lost sight of who you had in front of you. Rick is nothing but a complete gentleman. _Nothing_ is going on between us. He's faithful, unlike you."

Lori's eyes bugged out, the detestation she had for Jolene wanted to physically burst its way out.

"Don't worry, you got nothing to worry about anymore, I'm leaving. Just came in to get some water before I hit the road." Her smirk deepened, shooting Lori a dagger stabbing glare. You must think you have it all; you have your husband that you neglect around your boney little finger and your boy toy on the side…just how you like it." Jolene brushed past her.

She made her way outside the prison and noticed Rick was out in the prison yard keeping watch. _Shit, now I can't leave through the front gate_. Rerouting her path, she proceeded to the back of the prison.

"Rick!" Beth scurried out of the prison and headed towards Rick. "Rick!"

Rick turned around and paced towards Beth, fully alert and worried.

"Joe's gone." Beth handed Rick the note Jolene left. "I fell asleep with her in her cell about two hours ago, she couldn't be too far, right? You need to find her. She told me not to tell but she tried to kill herself, she stopped before it got too far, but I'm afraid she might do it again."

Rick ran both his hands down his face, still holding on to the note. "You did the right thing telling me. I'll find her, go back inside." Rick ran to the back of the prison. He knew that she would have left from the back since he was keeping guard on the front and sides of the prison.

Jolene pulled out the pliers she packed to clip the fence along with some wire to tie the fence back together, but she wasn't fast enough.

"Jolene!" Rick yelled from a distance.

Jolene deeply sighed, Rick was the last person she wanted to see. She leaned her forehead on the fence, looking down with her heart beating rapidly; remembering that awful night that changed her life.

*******Flash*****Back*****Jolene's*****Past*******

"You made me do this!" Justin screamed out.

Jolene wrapped her hands around his, attempting to loosen the firm grip on her delicate neck, but the lack of blood flowing through her head was making her weak and her vision was quickly fading. Her left hand flopped away and reached out for the knife she dropped. Out of pure luck, her fingers touched the blade, started to scrape the knife closer to her. She gripped the handle and with the last bit of energy she had left to muster up, swiftly penetrated the knife through his neck without a second thought other than survival.

Justin collapsed on top of her, he was bleeding out and in a blink of an eye, he was dead. Jolene laid there sobbing, with her husband's dead body on top of her. With her energy slowly returning, she pushed him off her. She slowly got up from the floor and started crying hysterically as the sight of his lifeless body and the puddle of blood. Not realizing her palms were already stained with his blood, she wiped her husband's blood off of her face with her palms. Jolene slowly pulled the knife out of his neck, staring at the blood-spattered scalpel that both saved _and_ changed her life, not being able to believe what she had done. She grabbed a rag from the table and wiped down the blade, ridding it of her fingerprints before quickly leaving the house and drove away, never looking back.

After an hour of driving, she pulled over at a gas station, grabbed the loose change she had in the glove compartment, and ran up to a pay phone.

"Hello." Jensen answered.

"Jensen…I'm so scared." Jolene sobbed.

"Jolene? What's going on?"

"I can't go back home…he was going to kill me."

"Justin? Where are you? I'll go…"

"No." Jolene cut him off. "He's dead. I had no choice."

Jensen didn't speak a word. He was shocked but knew that it was self defense. He was angry that he wasn't there to protect her.

"You believe me right?" Jolene whispered.

"Of…of course. Jolene, where are you? I can help…"

"I'm too far gone. I can't go back. I don't want to bring you in this mess."

"Jolene, we'll hire a lawyer and we'll sort this whole mess out. I won't let you go through this alone. I…"

"Justin's family never liked me and they have all the money in the world to convict me. All I can do is run now. I have to go. I'm sorry."

"Jolene, no…" Jensen's voice faded from her ear as she hung up the phone. She gently banged her head on the phone that rested on the hook. Out of everyone in the world, she would miss Jensen the most. Her heart had completely shattered, with all the sharp pieces stabbing her insides, knowing she would never see him again.

*******End*****Flash*****Back*******

"Jolene!" Rick grabbed her shoulder and promptly turned her to him.

"Don't touch me." Jolene pushed his hands away.

"What are you thin…?" Rick couldn't finish his sentence. So many things he wanted to say at once and he got tangled in his words. He ran his hand down his mouth and jaw in frustration as he threw her note on the ground.

"Suicide?" He snarled.

"I guess Beth woke up." Jolene sighed.

"Are you…"

"I didn't go through with it! I'm not strong enough and I can't take back what I've done but I didn't go through with it. If I'm going to die, I'm gonna go out swingin' and alone. I realize that now."

"Jolene…"

"No! I killed my husband." Tears slowly slid down her cheeks. "Self defense. He took it too far that night and I knew it was all over for me. I kept crying and begging, but he just wanted me to hurt. He beat me, started choking me to death, so I reached for the knife and killed him. His father was loaded, a senator…he hired the best lawyers and actors to make me out as a murderer. The so called "witnesses" lied to the cops and said that I killed him to cash in the life insurance. The felonies were years before I met Justin. I didn't live well and had to occasionally break the law just to eat. We were poor. Believe what you want…I'm not a bad person. I _am not_ a murderer. I just didn't want to die, not like that and not by him. So I ran, went into hiding."

Rick stood there, taken aback from what was just unloaded. "Jolene…" He slowly stepped toward her.

"No. Don't get near me." Jolene backed up. "I trusted you, I let my guard down. I have been called so many things in life but being called a murderer from you…you put your hands on me and pushed me against the wall." Jolene wiped the tears from her cheeks. "I can handle being put down from my husband, my mom, my brother, Shane, Lori, hell even the whole fuckin' world but coming from you…God, why does it hurt so bad coming from you?"

"Hey, Rick." Daryl called out as he was walking towards Rick and Jolene.

She rubbed her temples, trying to relieve her headache as Rick walked towards Daryl. Jolene knew she couldn't leave now, so she adjusted the backpack on her shoulder and power walked her way back to her cell, not wanting Daryl to see that she was crying.

Jolene threw her backpack to the corner of her cell and collapsed on the bed, landing on her stomach and crashed for the rest of what was left of the night.

**-Fifteen minutes later-**

Rick walked into her cell, holding on to a white flower that he picked out by the fence. He stared at her sleeping, feeling terrible for putting his hands on her and the cruel words that left his mouth. The day they met, he had told her to trust him, and he didn't live up to his word. He slowly made his way to her bedside and laid the flower down on the pillow above her head that she wasn't using. Staring down at Jolene, all he wanted to do was to hold her, to make her feel better and apologize a million times.

Rick left her cell and checked on Carl. He was sound asleep with the walkie talkie in his hand. He made his way to his bed and laid down, but knew that sleep was never going to happen for him tonight. Every problem he had would prevent it. The weight of the dead world was on his shoulders, with everyone looking to him as their leader. How was he going to keep all these people safe and how was he going to earn Jolene's trust back?

**-Morning-**

"Mommy." Sophia stood by Carol's cell door. She was surprised to see her mother cuddling with Daryl and knew that he was now going to be her new father. "Mommy."

Sophia's voice broke into Carol's dream and woke her up. She looked over to Sophia as her leg was wrapped over Daryl.

"Is Daryl my daddy now?"

"Hmm." Daryl rubbed his eyes as he slowly started waking up.

"Are you going to be my new daddy?" Sophia asked Daryl.

"What?" Daryl quickly sat up and looked over to Sophia.

"Honey, go find Clementine and Carl. I'll have breakfast ready in a bit." Carol got up and shoed Sophia away. "Go on."

Carol turned back to face Daryl as Sophia left. "I'm sorry. I didn't expect her to catch us sleeping together."

"Uh, yeah." Daryl was completely dumbfounded.

"I'm not expecting you to live up to that. I wouldn't ask for such a thing." Carol saw the shock and uncertainty in his face. "I'm sorry." She walked out to get breakfast started, feeling both meek and small.

Daryl stood there, thinking about it. He cared deeply for them, but to have Sophia think of him as a _father_ was out of his grasp. He wasn't the fatherly type but he knew where this was headed, that eventually things will progress with Carol. _Maybe I should get used to being called "Daddy." _he thought to himself. It wasn't the role he wanted to take in. However, he knew it was inevitable.

**-Jolene and Clementine-**

"Jolene. Wake up." Clementine jumped on the bed and gently shook Jolene's shoulder.

Jolene wasn't waking up. She heard Clementine but was exhausted and didn't want to respond.

"Charlie, come here." Clementine clapped her hands and Charlie jumped on the bed, licking Jolene's face.

"Ah, gross." Jolene gently pushed Charlie away from her.

"Carl got mad at me."

"Why'd he get mad at you?" Jolene sat up.

"He said I put a bug on his pillow when he was sleeping." She got off the bed.

"Well, did you?"'

Clementine's eyes looked left and right and her lips formed a small yet sneaky smile. "Yes."

Jolene chuckled as she got up and started stretching. "Well, maybe you should apologize. He doesn't think it's funny like you do."

"Okay. Come on, Charlie." Clementine walked out.

Jolene looked at her bed, noticing a white flower on her pillow. She picked it up and sniffed the freshness the flower emitted.

"Clem." Jolene called out before she got too far.

Clementine walked back and poked her head in. "Yeah."

"You leave this here?" Jolene showed the flower to her.

"No." Clementine responded, then disappeared.

Jolene sniffed it again, wondering who left it.

**-Hershel and Beth-**

"Beth, what's that you're washing?" Hershel walked up behind her as she was washing Jolene's bloody sheet.

"Nothing, Daddy. Just doing laundry is all."

"Laundry was done yesterday. Why is it covered with blood?"

Beth resisted. She didn't want to say word and already felt like she betrayed Jolene's trust by telling Rick.

"I'm your father, whatever happened that involves you and blood is my problem, too."

Beth inhaled and slowly exhaled, giving in to her father. "Jolene tried to kill herself last night, but she's okay now. She didn't go through with it and told me not to tell anyone. I stayed with her last night to make sure she was alright, and when I was asleep, she ran away. Rick caught her before she left."

Hershel stood there silently, knowing what he had to do. He already dealt with Beth trying to commit suicide and now he was going to have to deal with Jolene, because he was tired of seeing people die and wanting to be dead. He wouldn't have it anymore, not on his watch.

**-Jolene and Hershel-**

"May I have a word?" Hershel walked in Jolene's cell, holding her damp sheet.

Jolene sighed as she saw the sheet in his hands, knowing that he found out about what happened last night.

"It took a whole lot of convincing to talk Beth out of suicide. You both are a lot alike." Hershel laid the sheet on her bed.

Rick was walking to Jolene's cell to confront her but stopped when he realized Hershel had beaten him to it. He rested his back to the wall by her cell door and listened to what Hershel was saying.

"No, we're not. See, I never had a father to talk me out of suicide. Hell, if I knew the bastard, he'd probably tell me to do it. I don't have a family who cares two shits about me. Everyone here has a connection somehow, but I don't. I'm on the outside looking in. If I went through with it last night, it wouldn't have been a loss. So if you're coming in here to tell me to look on the bright side and that everything is going to be okay, save it. Because it's the last thing I want to hear. The only reason I'm still here is because your daughter blabbed to Rick."

Even though Hershel wasn't in her shoes, he felt her pain. "You are so blind. I know for a fact Rick cares a great deal for you. Why else would he fight so hard to keep you here? Clementine is in your hands. She doesn't look up to Rick or me, she looks up to _you_. My daughters adore you. Glenn, Carl, Carol, Sophia, Daryl and Jensen care for you. I care for you."

"Enough with the speech, you're not my father. If you knew what I've done…"

"You don't need to be blood to be family. Let's make it official. I hereby declare you my daughter."

Jolene tilted her head slightly to the right, wondering why he even cared.

"It doesn't matter what you've done in the past, what matters is what you do now to survive. I've gotten to know you, to see who you are. You protect Clementine like she's your own. You may have not known your biological father, but if he knew who you were he'd be damn ashamed to have missed out on your life. I see you adapting and growing. You care and it makes me damn proud to call you my daughter."

Jolene's lips twitched, holding back her every emotion. She had always wondered what it would be like to have a father and to hear Hershel, a man who she grew to respect, say what he said, it made her choke up inside.

"We can't choose our demons, but we can choose our families. We _are_ family."

Jolene couldn't hold it anymore, tried but failed. She quietly sobbed, tears quickly rolling down and dropping to the floor.

Rick knew that everything Hershel told Jolene was exactly what she needed. If anyone could make better of things it was Hershel. She needed to feel a sense of belonging and it was something that only Hershel could give. Rick walked away, not wanting to disturb the beauty of a new family.

Hershel stepped closer and Jolene wrapped her arms around his back. Hershel wrapped his arms around her and softly patted her back, comforting his daughter. Jolene knew she was finally home.

* * *

**So Hershel took Jolene under his wing, making her one of his own, which is something I think Jolene really needed. Looks like she isn't going anywhere. Lets not forget Martinez knows Jolene's whereabouts. Will this cause a riot to the prison? Will Rick be able to fix where he went wrong? Daryl a daddy? Hmm, well why not? I think he'll make a pretty awesome dad even though he isn't "Father material." I mean, Daryl and Carol will hook up, right?**


End file.
